TIMELY  TOPICS 

THEODORE  W.  HUNT 


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TIMELY  TOPICS 


TIMELY  TOPICS 


BY 


THEODORE  WHITEFIELD  HUNT 

PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH.  EMERITUS 
PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 


PRINCETON   UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
PRINCETON 

LONDON: HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1921 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
Princeton  University  Press 

Published,  1921 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

In  these  brief  papers  it  is  proposed  to  present  a  series  of 
vital  discussions  on  vital  topics — topics  in  part  growing  out 
of  the  World  War,  but  mainly  those  of  a  fundamental 
and  permanent  interest,  in  the  rapidly  developing  life  of  the 
modern  world.  To  a  limited  extent  educational,  they  are 
mainly  topics  of  civic  interest — national  and  international — 
the  object  being  to  assume  a  desirable  and  tenable  position 
between  radical  extremes,  and  in  a  sane  and  sensible  manner 
to  investigate  and  interpret  those  pressing  and  practical 
problems  which  confront  the  country  and  the  civilized  world 
at  large. 

T.   W.   Hunt. 

Princeton,  June  I,  1921. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 
I 

PAGE 

Democracy  and  Its  Limitations i 

The  Costly  Benefits  of  War 6 

The  Return  of  Peace 1 1 

The  New  Era   16 

The  New  Era  in  Higher  Education 20 

The  International  Mind 26 

II 

The  Call  for  Civic  Leadership 30 

The  Call  for  College  Men  in  the  Business  World 35 

The  Problems  and  Responsibilities  of  Peace 40 

Justifiable  Compromise 47 

Martial  Qualities  in  Civic  Life 52 

The  Value  of  Meliorism 58 

The  Mission  of  the  Middle  Classes 63 

The  Growth  of  Liberalism 70 

III 

America's  Need  of  Statesmen 77 

The  American  Forum  of  To-day 83 

Constructive  Processes 88 

National  Rights  and  National  Duties 94 

Level-Headedness    101 

Rational  Reform 107 

International  Leagues 112 

vii 


viii  Table  of  Contents 

IV 

PAGE 

The  Puritan  Legacy  to  America  121 

Democracy  on  Trial   129 

National  Loyalty 139 

Great  Historic  Movements 147 

The  Recent  Revival  of  Learning 155 

The  Emphasis  of  Principles  in  Liberal  Education 162 

The  Modern  Age  of  Unrest 168 

V 

The  Academic  Point  of  View 177 

Successful  Teaching 183 

The  Office  and  The  Man 189 

Eras  of  Reaction 197 

A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience 205 

The  Maintenance  of  Standards 216 


TIMELY  TOPICS 


DEMOCRACY  AND  ITS  LIMITATIONS 

Thirty  years  ago,  Professor  Fiske  published  a  volume 
under  the  title — "The  Critical  Period  in  American  History." 
If,  at  that  date,  the  conditions  were  critical  what  shall  be 
said  of  the  America  of  to-day,  at  the  close  of  the  World 
War!  It  is  the  world  as  a  whole  that  has  arrived  at  the 
most  critical  era  in  its  history.  So  momentous  have  been 
the  evolutions  and  revolutions  of  the  last  decade  that  they 
are  nothing  less  than  dramatic  and  that  on  the  side  of  trag- 
edy.    History  has  become  histrionic. 

To  examine  these  pending  and  confusing  issues  in  a 
judicial  and  dispassionate  temper  demands  the  wisdom  of 
the  wisest.  The  world  is  at  its  crisis  and  the  crisis  must 
be  met.  Two  or  three  fundamental  considerations  may  be 
cited : 


THE  DEMOCRATIC   INSTINCT 

The  word,  democratic,  is  here  used  in  its  etymological  and 
generally  accepted  sense,  of  the  rule  of  the  people.  Among 
the  "inalienable  rights"  with  which  men  as  men"  are  en- 
dowed, liberty  is  an  indispensable  one  and  never  can  be 

i 


2  Timely  Topics 

safely  surrendered.  It  is,  indeed,  more  than  an  endow- 
ment. It  is  an  instinct  in  peoples  of  all  eras  and  races  and 
from  the  dawn  of  history  has  insisted  upon  its  presence  and 
expression.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  the  divine  right  of  peoples  is  a  prior  one  to  which 
the  assumptions  of  kings  must  give  way  as  they  are  now 
doing,  perforce,  the  civilized  world  over.  Herein,  lies  the 
origin  of  what  by  various  names  we  call,  Representative 
Government  "of  and  by  and  for  the  people,"  what  Maine,  in 
his  suggestive  work  calls,  "Popular  Government,"  what  Mr. 
Bryce  calls,  "The  Commonwealth,"  where  the  ultimate  ob- 
ject of  government  is  the  common  weal.  At  times  it  is 
known  as  Parliamentary  Government.  This  is  what  is 
meant  in  English  History  by  the  Rise  of  The  People,  as 
expressed  in  the  thirteenth  century  in  the  Magna  Charta  of 
British  Rights.  It  is  this  ineradicable  instinct  which  from 
the  days  of  the  ancient  empires  has  protested  against  abso- 
lute monarchy,  and  which  has  been  the  occasional  cause  of 
every  Epoch  of  Reform  in  church  and  state.  Its  voice,  if 
stifled  for  a  time,  will  reassert' itself  with  redoubled  vigor 
and  will  eventually  be  heard  above  the  loudest  din  of 
despotism.  It  is  needless  to  assert  that  in  the  American 
Nation  this  instinct  for  freedom  has  had,  and  will  ever  have, 
fullest  expression. 

The  American  "Declaration"  is  a  "Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence." The  avowal  that  "all  men  are  created  equal" 
before  the  law  and  stand  at  the  outset  upon  a  common  plane 
of  privilege  is  a  fundamental  avowal  of  American  political 
belief.  In  this  belief  may  be  found  the  spirit  and  innermost 
character   of    democracy   as    exemplified    in    the    Western 


Democracy  and  Its  Limitations  3 

World,  affecting  all  phases  of  its  life,  civic,  social,  educa- 
tional, economic  and  religious.  From  the  revolutionary 
days  of  1776  on  through  the  tragic  era  of  the  Civil  War 
(1861-1865)  this  divine-human  instinct  has  made  its  pres- 
ence known  and  felt-  It  is  this  that  Draper  in  his  "Civic 
Polity  in  America"  has  emphasized,  as  ex-President  Wilson 
and  Mr.  Fiske  have  done  in  their  varied  contributions  to 
our  national  history.  Indeed  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  mission  of  America  to  the  world  is  to  reveal  the  potency 
and  primacy  of  this  insatiable  craving  for  civic  freedom.  It 
is  the  primary  justification  of  her  existence  as  a  people.  If 
she  fails  here,  she  fails  completely  and  must  at  length  give 
place  to  other  nationalities  which  can  make  the  mission  suc- 
cessful. 

11 

THE  LIMITATION   OF  DEMOCRACY 

Here  we  reach  an  essential  principle  in  the  exposition  and 
application  of  Democracy  as  a  method  of  government,  that 
it  be  under  the  constant  dominance  of  conscience  and  law. 
Montesquieu  in  his  "Esprit  des  Lois"  was  one  of  the  first 
political  authors  to  state  and  elucidate  this  principle.  The 
Democratic  Instinct  must  be  safeguarded  by  the  higher  rule 
of  reason  and  right.  It  is  in  this  way  only  that  the  world 
can  be  made  "safe  for  democracy"  or  democracy  safe  for 
the  world.  There  is  no  more  dangerous  political  theory  than 
that  of  unconditioned  freedom  in  the  state, — a  freedom  of 
civic  polity  unhampered  by  statute  and  national  restriction, 
from  which  arise  revolutions  inside  and  outside  the  state. 


4  Timely  Topics 

This  is  the  theory  that  has  begotten  a  direful  brood  of 
descendants,  such  as  Populism,  and  that  order  of  Socialism 
by  which  the  Golden  Age  of  the  Proletariat  is  to  be  ushered 
in.  Here  we  are  told  that  the  redemption  of  the  world 
draweth  nigh. 

It  is  this  divorce  between  liberty  and  law,  between  a  true 
and  a  false  democracy  that  has  produced  the  tragic  condi- 
tions of  the  last  half  decade  of  European  history  and  which 
at  this  moment  threatens  the  very  life  of  nations.  Limited 
democracy  is  the  only  possible  civic  order  between  despotic 
rule  on  the  one  hand,  and  rampant  anarchy  on  the  other,  by 
which  monarchy  is  so  democratized  and  democracy  so  regu- 
lated as  to  secure  a  safe  and  sane  governmental  regime. 
What  such  standard  writers  as  Hallam  and  Stubbs  call,  Con- 
stitutional Government,  is  of  this  stable  and  conservative 
liberty  under  control.  It  is  just  here  that  we  find  the  best 
justification  of  Limited  Monarchy  as  exemplified  in  Eng- 
land, an  order  of  civic  rule  that  may  just  as  appropriately 
be  called  Limited  Democracy,  and  which  as  thus  interpreted 
is  regarded  by  many  students  of  government  as  the  ideal 
order  for  a  state.  Whether  America  has  or  has  not  worthily 
fulfilled  this  theory  is  a  question  of  cardinal  and  present 
interest  for  whose  answer  the  world  is  waiting. 

Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  "American  Commonwealth,"  devotes 
no  little  space  to  this  vital  question  as  to  what  are  the  "Sup- 
posed Faults"  and  the  "True  Faults"  of  Democracy  in 
America,  concluding,  however,  and  as  we  think,  wisely,  that 
all  defects  conceded,  Representative  Government  in  the 
United  States  is,  in  the  main,  a  successful  political  experi- 
ment, especially  confirmed  when  we  contrast  it  with  the 


Democracy  and  Its  Limitations  5 

existing  governments  of  Continental  Europe.  From  the 
days  of  the  Revolution  on  through  the  Civil  War  and  down 
to  the  present  this  vital  principle  has  been  steadily  growing, 
permeating  every  phase  and  function  of  national  life  and  be- 
getting the  confident  belief  that,  in  due  time,  existing  defects 
will  be  substantially  remedied  and  an  order  of  government 
will  emerge  as  nearly  ideal  as  the  essential  limitations  of 
human  nature  will  permit.  The  imperfections  cited  by  Bryce, 
such  as — rapidly  shifting  public  opinion,  the  tendency  to 
level  all  distinctions,  the  overbearing  demands  of  majority 
rule, — these  and  similar  faults  are  not  beyond  correction, 
so  that  a  political  result  is  possible  more  satisfactory  than 
as  yet  has  been  realized  among  men.  In  fine,  a  conservative 
liberty  and  a  liberal  conservatism  will  afford  the  best  solution 
of  governmental  polity.  The  democratic  instinct  will  per- 
sist and  when  safeguarded  by  wholesome  political  restraint, 
will  justify  its  claims  as  the  best  possible  order. 

Here  is  seen  The  World  Ideal  as  from  the  days  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  Republics  on  through  the  Reformations 
and  Revolutions  of  Modern  Europe  in  England  and  France, 
in  Italy  and  Holland  and  other  States,  it  has  sought  un- 
ceasingly for  an  adequate  expression  and  will  not  be  denied. 
This,  after  all,  is  the  deeper  meaning  of  the  World  War 
just  ended — the  titanic  and  desperate  and  final  struggle  be- 
tween the  rule  of  despots  and  the  rule  of  the  people,  a  strug- 
gle well  worth  the  stupendous  price  that  has  been  already 
paid  to  secure  it.  The  great  World  Commonalty  demands 
a  hearing  in  the  open  forum  of  public  opinion,  a  demand  that 
will  be  heard  and  answered,  for  it  is  the  voice  of  God  ar- 
ticulated in  human  terms. 


6  Timely  Topics 

The  Parliament  of  Man  is  now  in  session  as  never  before 
and  no  motion  to  adjourn  will  be  entertained  until  the  im- 
perative business  before  the  House — the  free  federation  of 
the  World,  is  fully  and  satisfactorily  transacted.  [The 
solemn  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  realize  this  great  democratic 
ideal.  The  cry  for  Freedom,  a  safely  guarded  and  beneficent 
freedom,  is  in  the  air  ringing  clearly  out  above  the  sound 
of  all  competing  voices.  To  make  "the  bounds  of  freedom 
wider  yet"  is  the  call;  to  enfranchise  all  enslaved  peoples; 
to  rebuke  tyranny  and  anarchy  in  high  places,  and  thus  to 
bring  in,  as  speedily  as  possible,  the  Kingdom  of  Man  on 
earth. 

THE  COSTLY  BENEFITS  OF  WAR 

War  in  itself  is  an  unmitigated  evil — the  greatest  curse 
that  could  befall  a  nation.  Even  when  justified  on  the 
ground  of  national  life  and  in  defense  of  fundamental  truth 
and  justice,  its  immediate  effects  are  calamitous  and  viewed 
in  themselves  are  fraught  with  untold  disaster  and  distress. 
The  actual  loss  of  men,  representing  the  youth  and  vigor  and 
promise  of  the  world;  the  more  or  less  permanent  impair- 
ment of  the  soldiery  through  wounds  and  diseases  incident 
to  war;  the  incalculable  waste  of  the  raw  materials  and  the 
finished  products  of  a  nation's  activity;  the  conversion  of 
the  industries  of  a  people  to  purely  destructive  ends;  the 
limitless  legacy  of  loss  and  sorrow  to  succeeding  genera- 
tions; the  intensive  development  of  the  military  temper  and 
all  the  baser  passions  of  the  race ;  the  incentive  to  civic  dis- 
order and  the  reign  of  riot ;  the  devastation  of  homes  and  the 
violation  of  the  most  cherished  ideals  of  life — these  are  the 


The  Costly  Benefits  of  War  7 

tragic  resultants  that  follow  in  the  wake  of  war  and  cast  the 
course  of  civilization  backward  toward  the  darkest  ages  of 
history.  When  such  a  conflict  assumes  the  proportions  of 
the  world-war  just  closed,  the  attendant  evils  are  so  appall- 
ing as  to  stagger  the  imagination  and  institute  the  inquiry 
as  to  whether  life  under  such  possibilities  is  worth  the  price 
of  blood  and  treasure  that  is  paid  for  it,  and  woe  to  that 
people  who  take  the  field  with  sword  in  hand,  save  as  they 
do  so  by  a  manifest  mandate  from  Heaven. 

That  any  results  of  value  can  ensue  from  such  a  regime 
as  this  would  seem  to  be  an  impossibility.  It  is  just  here, 
however,  that  we  note  a  law  of  history  and,  indeed,  of  Provi- 
dence that  offers  an  answer  and  is  in  the  nature  of  a  justifi- 
cation. It  is  the  law  of  sacrifice  and  struggle  in  order  that 
the  highest  ends  of  individual  and  national  life  may  be  se- 
cured. When  the  struggle  is  in  a  worthy  cause,  for  the 
highest  ends,  the  results  are  correspondingly  valuable,  and 
even  when  the  cause  is  an  ignoble  one,  unjustified  in  its 
origin  and  method,  Providence  intervenes  to  make  the 
wrath  of  men  praise  Him.  All  the  greatest  reforms  in 
church  and  state  have  been  reached  through  blood  and  fire. 
In  the  great  Reformations  of  England  and  Continental  Eu- 
rope, in  such  imposing  Revolutions  as  the  French  and  the 
American  of  1789  and  1776;  in  the  Napoleonic  campaigns 
and  the  Civil  War  of  our  own  land,  benefits  have  accrued 
despite  the  countless  cost  involved  and  the  general  move- 
ment of  the  world  has  received  impetus  and  progressive 
force.    Some  of  these  costly  benefits  may  be  cited. 

1.  The  Spirit  of  Patriotism  is  intensified.  National  loy- 
alty has  never  been  so  signally  illustrated  as  in  the  late  war, 


8  Timely  Topics 

the  great  body  of  the  people  recognizing  at  the  outset  the 
rightful  claim  of  their  respective  governments  to  their 
whole-hearted  allegiance.  This  supreme  devotion  to  the 
nation's  interests  increased  as  national  peril  and  need  in- 
creased, so  that  ample  assurance  was  thus  furnished  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  body  politic  could  be  relied  upon  to  meet 
all  emergencies  and  ensure  the  final  triumph  of  the  govern- 
ment over  all  its  foes.  Here  and  there,  it  is  conceded,  were 
heard  undoubted  notes  of  disaffection  and  a  readiness  and 
purpose  to  oppose,  as  far  as  possible,  the  official  and  military 
policies  of  the  government,  but  such  a  disloyal  temper  was 
never  sufficient  to  lessen  or  impair  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the 
people  in  the  main.  Indeed,  the  effect  was  rather  to  stimu- 
the  national  devotion  and  arouse  an  indignant  protest 
against  the  attitude  and  action  of  all  disaffected  agencies. 

2.  The  Spirit  of  Sacrifice  is  intensified.  This  has  been 
so  unprecedented  as  to  excite  the  admiration  of  the  civilized 
world, — sacrifice  of  life  and  health  and  home  and  native 
land,  of  exacting  business  interests  and  all  that  pertains  to 
social  well  being.  Whatever  the  hardships  of  military  life, 
on  the  march  and  in  the  trenches,  behind  the  lines  and  at  the 
front,  these  were  willingly  endured  for  the  country's  good. 
Nor  was  this  spirit  of  sacrifice  confined  to  the  soldiery  who 
actually  participated  in  the  camp  life  and  the  conflict  of 
battle,  but  equally  fully  exhibited  on  the  part  of  those  who 
voluntarily  surrendered  to  the  nation  those  whom  they  most 
dearly  loved  and  on  whom  in  numberless  instances  they  were 
dependent  for  sustenance  and  fellowship  and  service.  We 
speak  of  the  supreme  sacrifice,  as  the  sacrifice  of  life,  and 
yet  this  side  that  final  offering  on  the  altar  of  country,  there 


The  Costly  Benefits  of  War  9 

were  untold  instances  of  an  order  of  sacrifice  well  nigh  as 
crucial,  and  alike  expressive  of  an  absolute  surrender  of  self 
for  a  noble  cause  and  a  high  ideal. 

3.  The  spirit  of  Generosity  and  Service  has  been  ex- 
pressed on  a  scale  so  conspicuous  and  colossal  as  to  make 
quite  insignificant  all  previous  records  along  this  line,  un- 
stinted and  unceasing  contribution  to  all  the  multiform  ob- 
jects incident  to  such  a  gigantic  struggle — the  calls  for  aid 
being  as  insistent  and  urgent  as  the  world-wide  character 
of  the  war  itself.  Never  has  philanthropy  assumed  such 
spacious  proportions  and  been  applied  to  such  divers  in- 
terests. The  superb  ministries  of  the  Red  Cross  organiza- 
tion on  the  field  and  in  the  wards  of  the  hospital ;  the  efforts 
to  afford  such  instruction  for  the  wounded  as  to  enable  them 
to  resume,  in  part  at  least,  the  ordinary  and  essential  voca- 
tions of  life;  the  offering  of  time  and  means  and  per- 
sonal effort  for  the  restoration  of  desolated  homes;  the 
various  activities  of  a  strictly  moral  and  religious  nature 
whereby  the  army  and  navy  might  be  maintained  at  their 
highest  efficiency,  and  the  numberless  ways  in  which  a  help- 
ing hand  might  be  given  to  relieve  distress  and  inspire  new 
hope  and  cheer,  all  this  has  marked  an  order  of  genuine 
philanthropy  which  is  without  parallel  and  which  has  done 
much  to  divest  war  of  its  terrors  and  horrors  and  evince 
the  possibility  of  educing  good  out  of  evil. 

4.  The  Spirit  of  Unity  in  sentiment  and  service  has 
been  one  of  the  rarest  benefits  of  the  war — by  the  influence 
of  which  the  masses  and  the  classes  have  met  on  common 
ground  as  never  before,  by  which  all  unnatural  distinctions 
in  the  civil  and  social  order  have  been  obliterated  or  lessened 


io  Timely  Topics 

and  what  may  be  called  the  democratization  of  the  world 
has  ensued.  The  high  and  low,  the  cultured  and  the  illit- 
erate, the  pauper  and  the  prince,  the  priest  and  the  parish- 
ioner, have  struggled  and  suffered  together.  All  conven- 
tional distinctions — civic  and  ecclesiastical,  have  disap- 
peared, as  all  classes  and  orders  have  been  mobilized  for 
united  service.  Never  again,  it  would  seem,  can  the  old 
regime  of  exclusiveness  be  effective,  but  as  all  men  are 
created  equal  before  the  law  and  have  been  widely  separated 
by  agencies  purely  artificial  and  unjust,  this  original  equal- 
ity must  reassert  itself  with  vastly  increased  efficiency  and 
the  blessings  and  benefits  of  civilized  life  be  equally  open  to 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  This  levelling  process  in 
the  line  of  catholicity  and  unification  of  interest  is  in  itself 
well  worth  the  price  of  blood  and  treasure  already  paid  and 
is  full  of  promise  for  the  future  of  the  world. 

5.  A  further  secondary  result  of  war,  applicable  to  that 
just  ended,  is  the  Cementing  of  Friendship  between  France 
and  America  as,  also,  between  America  and  England.  Such 
a  confirmation  of  Anglo-American  and  Franco-American 
unity,  it  is  urged,  would  be  a  factor  second  to  no  other  in 
securing  general  international  comity  and  maintaining  gen- 
eral international  peace,  especially  as  to  America  and  Eng- 
land. Such  a  confirmation  of  friendship  would  be  singu- 
larly significant  and  fraught  with  untold  blessing. 

Such  are  some  of  the  Costly  Benefits  of  War,  despite  the 
essential  curse  of  war  itself,  confirmed  by  all  history  and 
gradually  evolved  by  the  mysterious  and  gracious  processes 
of  that  Providence  that  rules  and  overrules  the  destinies  of 
men. 


The  Return  of  Peace  1 1 

What  the  nations  have  now  left  them  as  a  legacy  is — The 
Priceless  Blessings  of  Peace — The  Golden  Age  of  Fruition, 
for  which  all  antecedent  history  and  all  national  struggle 
have  been  a  preparation  and  to  the  rational  enjoyment  and 
fullest  utilization  of  which  the  nations  of  the  world  are 
solemnly  summoned.  How  best  to  enjoy  and  utilize  these 
blessings  is  the  practical  problem  of  the  hour,  so  as  to  fall 
in  line  with  the  primary  purpose  of  Providence  regarding 
them  and  so  as  to  ensure  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  civilized 
world  at  large, — a  problem  for  every  separate  nation  and 
every  separate  citizen,  if  so  be  the  errors  and  evils  of  the 
past  may  be  eliminated  and  the  course  of  the  world  clearly 
determined  toward  an  ever  higher  order  of  life  and  service. 

THE  RETURN  OF  PEACE 

"The  Day"  so  long  and  patiently  awaited  has  at  length 
dawned,  irrradiating  a  darkened  world,  not  "The  Day"  of 
conflict  as  some  anticipated  and  welcomed  it,  nor  even 
"The  Day"  of  Victory  for  the  mere  sake  of  victory  over  a 
nation's  foes,  but  a  day  of  disarmament  and  demobiliza- 
tion, a  day  of  deliverance  from  the  ravages  and  bitterness 
of  war  and  the  reinstatement  of  the  pursuits  and  privileges 
of  peace,  when  a  people  may  once  again  come  into  its  own 
and  the  normal  processes  of  life  be  resumed. 

i.  One  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  the  Return  of  Peace 
is  Peace  itself,  the  sheer  sense  of  relief  from  the  devastation 
and  desolations  of  strife,  the  mere  enjoyment  of  repose 
after  the  harassing  disquietude  and  anxieties  of  war  when 


12  Timely  Topics 

the  baser  elements  of  human  nature  are  relegated  to  the 
background  and  all  the  gentler  expressions  of  life  reassert 
themselves.  There  is  a  sense  of  untold  satisfaction  in  the 
restoration  of  order  and  quiet  procedure  when  life  can  be 
viewed  and  enjoyed  in  its  essential  realities  and  recom- 
penses. The  experience  is  like  to  that  of  a  storm-tossed 
mariner  reaching  at  length  a  harbor  of  safety,  or  that  of  a 
worn  out  traveler  enjoying  refreshing  rest  after  a  long  and 
dangerous  journey,  or  that  of  a  stricken  sufferer  reaching 
the  period  of  convalescence  and  complete  recovery.  It  is 
here  that  the  distinction  between  the  individual  and  the 
national  is  practically  eliminated  when  an  entire  people  in 
their  collective  capacity  passes  from  a  state  of  distressing 
unrest  and  alarm  to  the  actual  realization  of  rest. 

So  distinctive  and  deep-seated  has  been  this  sense  of 
relief,  as  the  late  titanic  struggle  closed,  that  one  could 
almost  hear  the  note  of  joy  on  the  part  of  the  nations  thus 
enfranchised.  It  is  a  blessing  whose  value  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed in  language,  too  deeply  imbedded  in  the  recesses  of 
a  people's  heart  to  be  reducible  to  words,  a  radical  restitu- 
tion of  national  life — a  real  renaissance  of  the  national 
spirit  and  the  national  hope,  imparting  a  new  lease  of  cor- 
porate life,  infusing  new  energy  into  all  the  functions  of 
national  activity  and  opening  up  such  an  outlook  for  na- 
tional endeavor  and  enterprise  as  to  stimulate  every  dormant 
capability  and  set  the  nation  far  ahead  on  the  open  highway 
of  national  progress. 

2.  A  more  positive  and  objective  result  of  Peace  is  the 
awakening  of  what  might  be  called  the  Constructive  spirit 


The  Return  of  Peace  1 3 

of  a  people,  a  making  over  again  of  a  nation's  structure  and 
character,  a  building,  as  if  anew,  of  the  very  foundations  of 
a  nation's  life  and  in  a  manner  more  durable  than  ever. 

War  is  essentially  destructive  in  its  governing  purpose, 
and  the  methods  by  which  it  is  conducted.  From  first  to  last, 
its  primary  aim  is  the  demolition  of  all  that  stands  in  the 
way  of  its  advance.  We  speak,  and  rightly,  of  the  waste  of 
war.  This  is  its  ideal,  to  uproot  all  existing  agencies  and 
mark  its  track  by  an  indiscriminate  ruin.  Whatever  its 
ultimate  ends  may  be  in  the  defense  of  national  life  and 
interests  and  the  realization  of  political,  social  or  economic 
ends,  its  immediate  aim  is  desolation  and  that  only. 

Hence,  the  first  and  foremost  call  of  the  hour  after  peace 
is  secured  is  that  of  Restoration  and  Reconstruction,  a  vig- 
orous process  of  Reformation,  partly  by  way  of  recovering 
that  which  has  been  lost  and  partly  by  way  of  instituting 
a  new  and  better  order.  Construction  must  be  carried  on 
concordant  with  reconstruction.  Indeed  the  more  positive 
process  of  building  anew  from  the  ground  up  must  be  em- 
phasized over  any  form  of  merely  reparative  work.  For- 
mation must  co-operate  with  and  surpass  mere  reforma- 
tion, and  the  nation  at  large  and  the  world  at  large  be  thus 
advanced  to  ever  higher  levels  of  endeavor  and  achieve- 
ment. It  is  one  of  the  most  significant  and  beneficent 
anomalies  of  life  and  strictly  within  the  divine  order  of 
the  world  that  when  the  destructive  processes  of  man  or 
nature  have  had  their  dire  way  and  done  their  worst  and 
at  length  cease,  the  restorative  and  constructive  processes 
at  once  assert  themselves  with  redoubled  vigor  and  with 
an  intensity  often  in  proportion  to  the  destruction  that  has 
been  wrought. 


14  Timely  Topics 

Were  it  not  for  this  benign  law  of  Providence  and  his- 
tory, whereby  these  remedial  agencies  begin  to  act  close 
upon  the  wake  of  devastation,,  the  world  would  soon  revert 
to  chaos.  How  graciously  and  potently  in  the  day  of  con- 
valescence the  healing  agencies  of  the  body  begin  to  act,  so 
as  to  repair  the  waste  of  disease,  reinvigorate  the  depleted 
system  and  awaken  hope  and  joy  in  the  sufferer's  heart. 
Even  so  graciously  and  potently  do  a  nation's  restorative 
powers  assert  themselves  when  the  struggle  ceases  and  all 
the  factors  and  forces  of  the  national  life  are  quickened  into 
fuller  function.  Herein  lie  the  responsibilties  that  the 
dawn  of  peace  brings  with  it — that  any  people  so  delivered 
shall  at  once  appreciate  the  meaning  of  its  deliverance,  take 
full  advantage  of  the  new  opportunities  thus  offered,  and 
address  itself  whole-heartedly  to  the  duties  and  demands 
of  the  hour,  acknowledging  the  presence  of  all  the  con- 
structive forces  and  co-operating  with  them  in  all  their 
beneficent  ends.  It  is  largely  by  this  principle  that  the  char- 
acter of  a  people  is  tested,  whether  it  utilizes  or  fails  to 
utilize  the  privilege  of  the  hour. 

Hence,  The  Perils  of  Peace,  induced  by  the  principle 
of  Reaction,  distinctive  and  pronounced  in  proportion  to 
the  intensity  of  the  conflict  that  has  closed.  During  the 
time  that  war  prevails  the  nations  engaged  are  in  a  state 
of  unwonted  tension.  Every  agency  is  at  the  limit  of  its 
activity  under  the  ever-increasing  stress  of  events.  Normal 
processes  have  given  place  largely  to  abnormal  conditions 
and  entire  peoples  are  the  subjects  of  nervous  energies 
aroused  beyond  all  ordinary  limits,  in  all  the  spheres  of  life 


The  Return  of  Peace  15 

— civic,  industrial  and  social.  The  national  pulse  is  beating 
at  fever  heat  and  the  body  politic  is  charged  with  a  vitality 
that  is  unnatural  and  dangerous.  From  such  a  condition 
Reaction  necessarily  enters,  and  when  it  arises  from  such 
a  world-wide  catastrophe  as  the  late  war  the  results  are 
ominous  and  often  tragic,  testing  the  very  existence  of  any 
nation  that  is  the  subject  of  it.  Hence,  the  variety  of  forms 
that  such  a  reactionary  movement  may  take,  assuming  at 
one  time  the  form  of  absolute  anarchy  or  a  protest  against 
all  established  order,  and  at  another  expressing  itself  in  a 
stolid  and  supine  inactivity,  blocking  all  the  wheels  of 
progress  and  suppressing  every  remnant  of  national  ambi- 
tion and  hope,  while  between  these  two  extremes  of  revolu- 
tion and  an  abject  surrender  of  all  national  aspiration  divers 
forms  of  evil  assert  themselves,  such  as  national  arrogance 
as  a  result  of  victory ;  national  extravagance  as  the  fruit  of 
the  waste  of  war;  a  development  of  an  excessive  economic 
rivalry  among  the  nations  in  order  to  repair  such  waste;  a 
legacy  of  national  and  international  hatred  engendered  by 
the  habit  of  war;  the  infusion  into  civic  life  of  a  distinct 
militaristic  temper;  a  distaste  for  the  quiet  and  ordinary 
avocations  of  life  as  contrasted  with  the  exciting  activities 
of  war — in  a  word,  the  dominance  of  the  lower  over  the 
higher  instincts  of  nature.  Here  lies  the  supreme  obliga- 
tion in  the  history  of  all  great  struggles, — to  utilize  their 
best  efforts  and  neutralize  the  possible  attendant  evils,  and 
here  is  needed  the  best  judgment  of  a  nation's  leaders  and 
of  the  people  at  large  to  hold  the  nation  to  its  highest  ideals 
lest  it  lose  the  very  ends  for  which  the  sacrifice  and  struggle 
have  been  made.     Such  are  the  perils  even  of  a  peace  that  is 


1 6  Timely  Topics 

victorious,  and  when  a  nation  as  a  result  of  unsuccessful 
war  is  compelled  to  sue  for  peace,  such  perils  are  indefinitely 
increased  and  are  wont  to  assume  the  most  revolting  and 
alarming  forms,  induced  by  the  sheer  desperation  of  defeat. 
It  is  thus  clear  beyond  all  question  that  the  dominant 
duty  of  all  peoples  at  the  close  of  a  national  conflict  is  that 
of  Conciliation  and  Reconciliation,  if  so  be  the  inevitable 
evils  of  war  as  provocative  of  all  the  baser  instincts  may 
be  reduced  to  the  minimum  and  the  better  elements  and 
functions  of  the  human  heart  be  encouraged  to  express 
themselves.  On  the  part  of  the  victorious  people  this  should 
induce  the  suppression  of  all  national  vanity,  and  on  the 
part  of  the  conquered  nation  a  rational  submission  to  the 
arbitrament  of  arms.  National  arrogance  and  national 
resentment  should  alike  be  subordinate  to  an  ever-growing 
desire  to  heal  the  spirit  of  dissension  existing  among  former 
foes  and  return  again  to  those  conditions  of  international 
comity  and  fellowship  which  are  the  only  guarantees  of 
the  world's  progress.  Nothing  should  more  clearly  mark 
the  return  of  peace  than  the  restoration  of  Good  Will, — a 
League  of  Nations  based  on  fraternity  rather  than  political 
diplomacy  and  thus  designed  to  contribute  to  the  general 
good. 

THE  NEW  ERA 

The  era  now  at  hand  is  indeed  new,  not  only  chronologi- 
cally as  subsequent  to  antecedent  eras,  but  in  every  phase 
and  function  of  national  and  international  life,  and  new 
not  only  as  to  those  external  changes  which  impress  them- 


The  New  Era  17 

selves  so  vividly  upon  the  mind  of  the  most  casual  observer, 
but  as  to  the  hidden  internal  changes  which  affect  the 
foundations  and  movements  of  life  and  of  which  all  that  is 
external  is  but  the  manifestation  and  expression.  The  very 
spirit  of  life  has  been  changed — its  motives  and  governing 
purpose,  its  ideals  and  aspirations,  so  that  nations  cannot 
develop  along  traditional  lines  nor  subserve  simply  tra- 
ditional ends.  In  this  era,  more  than  ever  before,  it  may 
truthfully  be  said  that  nations  are  born  in  a  day  and  rise  at 
once  into  newness  of  life  and  action.  It  is  the  Renaissance 
of  the  world. 

To  the  superficial  and  merely  materialistic  student  of  the 
world's  life  these  changes  are  apt  to  be  regarded  as  mainly 
industrial  and  commercial,  inducing  a  new  economic  order 
by  which  the  wealth  of  the  world  is  to  be  increased  and  what 
one  calls  the  comforts  of  civilization  more  widely  diffused. 
As  the  origin  of  the  late  war,  and  of  most  wars,  is  said  to 
be  mainly  economic,  so  their  final  purpose  is  regarded  and 
as  the  struggle  ends  the  victorious  nation  is  busily  engaged 
in  summing  up  its  monetary  assets.  The  fact  is  that  changes 
such  as  these  are  the  least  significant  to  the  eye  of  the  right- 
minded  observer,  the  dominant  inquiry  being  how  the  great 
underlying  currents  of  the  world's  life  are  affected,  its  civic 
and  social  order,  its  educational  and  intellectual  order,  its 
moral  and  religious  order — in  a  word,  the  real  life  of  the 
peoples.  Here,  as  nowhere  else,  the  new  era  is  to  be  studied 
and  tested,  and  if  failing  in  these  respects  to  abide  the  test, 
it  may  be  said  to  fail  completely,  for  what  the  world  is 
seeking  is  not  its  material  enrichment,  but  its  sound  civic, 
mental   and   moral   regeneration.      Tragic   and   saddening 


1 8  Timely  Topics 

beyond  all  conception  as  this  world-wide  conflict  has  been, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  price  is  scarcely  too  great,  if  so  be 
such  a  regeneration  is  the  fruit  of  it,  and  it  is  on  this  issue 
that  the  heart  of  man  is  set  and  the  hope  of  the  world 
based.  If  this  hope  is  realized  the  era  at  hand  is  only  new 
in  the  highest  conceivable  sense,  and  happy  is  he  who  appre- 
ciating its  character  and  possibilities  is  privileged  to  share 
in  its  fulfillment. 

Evidences  already  are  clearly  seen  that  the  nations  far 
and  near  are  awakening  to  their  mission  and  initiating  meas- 
ures to  utilize  it.  The  heart  of  the  world  is  stirred  as  never 
before,  and  despite  all  existing  obstacles  that  must  arise  in 
connection  with  so  radical  a  revelation,  mankind  is  more 
hopeful  than  ever  that  order,  civic  and  social,  will  eventually 
emerge,  that  the  best  elements  of  individual  and  national 
life  will  assert  themselves  and  the  dawn  of  this  new  day 
steadily  advance  to  its  meridian. 

As  to  how  these  promising  results  may  best  be  reached 
without  unduly  disturbing  established  order,  so  that  reno- 
vation may  not  degenerate  into  revolution,  this  is  the  prac- 
tical question  of  the  time. 

Without  entering  into  the  details  of  this  onward  and 
upward  movement  as  to  just  what  these  new  features  should 
be  in  society  and  government,  in  mind  and  morals,  there  are 
two  suggestions  of  movement  that  may  be  urged.  First  of 
all,  these  changes  should  be  Gradual  and  not  violent,  and 
this  just  because  they  are  so  radical.  The  transition  from 
prior  conditions  to  a  new  and  distinctive  order  must  ob- 
serve the  law  of  any  beneficent  transition  by  gradational 
process.     Great  transitions  are  in  their  nature  inclined  to 


The  New  Era 


19 


rapid  movement  because  transitional,  and  easily  pass  the 
bounds  of  reason  and  take  on  the  form  of  revolution.  Such 
a  tendency  is  apparent  at  this  hour,  as  the  very  foundations 
of  society  are  shaken  and  the  best  judgment  of  peoples  is 
needed  to  withstand  the  tendency  to  violent  revolt  and  insti- 
tute a  process  of  slow  and  sober  adjustment.  History  is 
replete  with  signal  illustration  of  the  lack  of  this  steadying 
guidance  in  the  midst  of  violent  disorder  and  confusion. 
Never  has  such  an  ordered  movement  been  more  urgently 
needed  than  it  is  now,  and  never  has  there  been  such  a  de- 
mand for  the  wisdom  of  the  wisest,  if  so  be  the  very  ends 
that  are  sought  may  not  be  thwarted.  Leaders  of  the  people 
and  the  people  themselves  must  co-operate  with  this  stabil- 
izing process  and  make  haste  slowly. 

A  further  and  equally  important  suggestion  is  to  the 
effect  that  whatever  the  new  order  of  things  may  bring  to 
the  world  at  large,  the  essential  values  of  the  Older  Order 
must  be  preserved.  Here  is  a  crucial  problem — to  preserve 
the  best  of  that  which  is  old  and  secure  the  best  of  that 
which  presents  itself  as  new.  This  salient  principle  applies 
equally  fully  in  all  departments  of  judicial  and  international 
life — the  principle  of  a  valid  conservatism  and  a  valid 
liberalism,  by  which  the  past  and  the  future  are  vitally 
linked,  by  which  bigoted  traditionalism  and  an  equally 
bigoted  radicalism  are  alike  rebuked  and  the  wholesome 
unity  and  continuity  of  world  progress  preserved.  In  the 
application  of  this  principle  to  social  and  philanthropic 
problems,  to  the  pressing  problems  of  governmental  polity, 
to  the  vastly  important  question  of  educational  reform  and 
to  all  the  possible  changes  in  the  sphere  of  the  religious  and 


20  Timely  Topics 

ecclesiastical,  care  must  be  taken  to  engraft  the  new  order 
on  that  portion  of  the  old  stock  which  is  essential  and  vital. 

It  is  gratifying  to  note  that  events  are  shaping  in  this 
direction.  Modifications  of  the  social  order  are  studied  in 
the  light  of  what  is  best  in  past  conditions,  changes  in  the 
constitutions  of  states,  in  curricula  of  institutions  of  learn- 
ing and  the  creeds  and  confessions  of  all  churches  are 
contemplated  in  deference  to  what  has  been  already  proved 
to  be  desirable  and  serviceable.  It  is  by  this  method  and 
this  only  that  the  new  era  will  be  beneficent  and  lasting — a 
safe  and  genuine  attempt  to  move  the  modern  world  a  little 
further  on  along  the  line  of  an  ever  advancing  progress. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  outlook  is  promising  and  the 
interests  involved  inspiring,  summoning  every  lover  of  his 
country  and  his  kind  to  take  his  part  in  the  inspiring  service, 
if  so  be  an  order  of  life  among  the  nations  may  be  ushered 
in  for  which  the  world  has  long  been  waiting.  It  is  in  the 
light  of  such  an  issue  that  the  redemption  of  the  world 
draweth  nigh. 

THE  NEW  ERA  IN  HIGHER  EDUCATION 

Higher  education  is  distinguished  here  from  secondary 
education,  pertaining  specifically  to  the  college  and  the 
university. 

Education,  in  common  with  all  other  forms  of  human 
activity,  has  been  distinctly  affected  by  the  late  war,  and  is 
also  affected,  and  chiefly  so,  by  all  those  changing  conditions 
which  mark  what  we  call  the  progress  of  the  race  from 
higher  to  higher  levels,  a  progress  induced  by  the  natural 


The  New  Era  in  Higher  Education  21 

law  of  change,  by  the  sheer  stress  and  demands  of  modern 
life,  and  which,  as  such,  is  as  inevitable  as  the  movement  of 
the  tides. 

The  new  era  is  primarily  one  of  modification,  a  modifica- 
tion of  means  and  ends,  and,  in  some  instances,  of  what 
have  been  regarded  as  fundamental  and  abiding  principles. 
By  such  a  modification  the  relation  of  the  primary  and  sub- 
ordinate may  at  times  be  reversed,  emphasis  may  be  laid  on 
methods  and  aims  hitherto  viewed  as  unimportant;  the  old 
and  the  new  may  interchange  positions — in  fine  there  may  be 
induced  a  recasting  of  the  existing  educational  status  to  meet 
the  issue  of  the  hour.  Events  are  moving  more  rapidly  than 
ever,  the  world  at  large  is  more  alert  and  restless  than  ever ; 
too  much  so  to  await  the  slow  processes  of  the  past. 

The  conditions,  therefore,  that  confront  those  who  have 
most  at  heart  the  highest  advance  of  the  race  and  who  will 
be  most  instrumental  in  securing  it  are  nothing  less  than 
critical  and  demand  the  highest  order  of  judgment.  The 
sphere  of  religious  thought  and  life  apart,  there  is  no  prov- 
ince in  which  such  a  problem  is  more  pronounced  and 
important  than  in  that  of  education,  especially  in  its  higher 
forms,  and  none  in  which  the  call  of  the  times  is  more 
imperative  and  urgent. 

The  forms  which  such  a  problem  may  assume  have  differ- 
ent phases  and  values,  such  as : 

The  true  relation  of  the  cultural  and  vocational;  of  the 
general  and  the  special;  the  liberal  and  the  technical;  of  the 
classical  and  scientific;  of  the  ancient  and  the  modern. 
Shall  the  humanities,  so  called,  retain  their  place  of  primacy? 
Shall  liberal  education  mean  in  the  future  what  it  has  meant 


22  Timely  Topics 

since  the  Revival  of  Learning?  What  is  the  relative  value 
of  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  in  the  arts  themselves  the  rela- 
tive value  of  the  Fine  and  the  Useful  Arts,  and  in  the 
sciences,  that  of  Pure  and  Applied  Science?  It  is  clear  that 
the  problem  involves  the  entire  content  or  subject-matter  of 
education,  the  question  of  its  best  methods  as  a  pedagogic 
training  and  its  ultimate  purpose  in  deference  to  existing  and 
future  needs.  The  problem  is  so  interesting  as  to  be  fasci- 
nating, and  so  difficult  as  to  be  embarrassing,  and  in  any 
discussion  and  resolution  will  vitally  affect  the  general 
collegiate  and  university  life  of  the  modern  world.  A  sug- 
gestion or  two  may  be  of  service. 

A.  First  of  all,  it  is  vital  to  maintain  that  no  essential 
Antagonism  exists  or  should  be  allowed  to  exist  between  any 
two  of  these  contrasted  methods,  such  as  the  Cultural  and 
Vocational,  the  General  and  Special.  They  are  to  be  viewed 
as  co-ordinate  and  interactive,  possessing  with  all  their  con- 
trasts, elements  in  common,  and  in  the  end  co-operating  to 
the  complete  education  of  the  student.  Differences  may 
exist,  but  not  antagonisms,  an  honest  effort  being  made  to 
minimize  the  differences  and  emphasize  the  features  in  com- 
mon. Great  harm  has  been  done  in  this  discussion  in  that 
rival  camps  have  been  instituted,  bitter  opposition  engen- 
dered and  a  method  of  controversy  adopted  which  prevents 
at  the  outset  impartial  argument  and  an  ingenuous  effort  to 
reach  a  valid  result  just  to  all  concerned.  Competing  inter- 
ests need  not  be  conflicting  interests,  and  exponents  of  dif- 
ferent educational  policies  may  be  surprised  to  find  as  to  how 
much  they  can  severally  agree.  The  question  is  one  of 
relative  value  and  proportion,  as  demanded  by  those  new 


The  New  Era  in  Higher  Education  23 

and  unforeseen  conditions  which  make  some  modification 
imperative. 

B.  It  may  further  be  suggested :  that  the  Essential  Prin- 
ciples and  features  of  the  existing  regime  should  as  far  as 
possible  be  maintained — the  cultural,  general,  liberal,  classi- 
cal and  ancient,  but  not  in  the  exact  form  and  measure  in 
which  they  have  hitherto  obtained.  It  is  just  here  that  the 
valid  principle  of  concession  or  compromise  enters  as  a 
feasible  factor — a  principle  clearly  illustrated  in  all  the  great 
reforms  of  history,  that  concession  being  granted  by  reason 
of  the  manifestly  new  developments  of  the  time. 

To  insist  here  upon  the  hyper-conservative  theory  that 
traditional  educational  methods  should  prevail  because  tra- 
ditional, is  as  dangerous  and  illogical  an  extreme  as  to  insist 
upon  their  complete  elimination.  Every  form  and  phase  of 
human  activity  has  changed,  and  he  has  in  hand  a  difficult 
problem  who  contends  that  in  the  sphere  of  education  this 
inevitable  law  is  inoperative.  Education,  in  its  very  nature 
and  ideal,  is  a  process,  a  development,  and  as  such  involves, 
in  its  very  conception,  the  necessity  and  desirability  of  modi- 
fication to  adjust  it  to  ever-varying  needs. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  educational  modernism,  as  im- 
portant in  its  place  as  modernism  in  the  sphere  of  religious 
thought  and  life.  Education  must  not  only  be  held  back 
to  date  in  deference  to  the  past,  but  brought  down  to  date  in 
deference  to  the  present  and  the  future,  and  these  results 
are  not  incompatible. 

C.  The  question  of  primary  purport,  therefore,  that  here 
emerges  is:     What  are  the  Specific  Changes  desired  and 


24  Timely  Topics 

needed,  and  where  are  they  to  begin  and  end  to  meet  this  call 
for  adjustment? 

Here  is  an  open  field  for  wide  and  reasonable  differences 
of  opinion  among  those  who  are  seeking  a  tenable  and  prac- 
ticable policy,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  safe  and  satisfactory 
conclusions  will  be  reached  by  the  temperate  exchange  of 
views  and  the  spirit  of  mutual  surrender  of  opinion  when 
demanded.  It  is  here  that  the  classical  controversy  reaches 
its  acute  stage,  and  it  is  at  this  moment  the  dominant  ques- 
tion, a  question  involving,  it  is  urged,  the  classical  languages 
only,  and  not  their  literatures,  and  the  languages  themselves 
in  their  original  text.  Classical  authors,  it  is  justly  said, 
may  be  profitably  studied  in  translation,  quite  fully  enough 
to  obtain  a  classical  outlook  and  imbibe  the  classical  spirit, 
and  the  literature  of  the  ancient  languages  may  be  enjoyed 
quite  apart  from  specific  linguistic  study  of  grammar  and 
text.  This  is  a  point  urgently  pressed  by  the  advocates  of 
modification  as  to  classical  requirements  and  would  release 
a  large  amount  of  time  and  space  for  other  studies.  More- 
over, as  to  the  study  of  the  languages  themselves,  a  valid 
distinction  is  made  by  many  between  the  Greek  and  the 
Latin  in  relation  to  the  needs  of  the  average  student,  the 
reduction  of  the  Greek  being  urged  as  more  imperative  than 
that  of  the  Latin.  By  the  time  thus  released  the  increasing 
demands  of  political,  economic,  historical,  social  and  scien- 
tific studies,  it  is  argued,  could  be  safely  met,  as  also  the 
just  claims  of  the  Modern  Languages  of  Continental 
Europe. 

In  a  word,  herein  lies  a  scheme,  not  of  elimination,  but 
of  partial  reduction  in  behalf  of  what  may  be  called  the 


The  New  Era  in  Higher  Education  25 

modern  order;  containing  nothing  radical  or  revolutionary, 
omitting  nothing  which  the  student  may  not  secure  if  he 
desires,  at  least  in  modified  measure,  and  thus  co-ordinating 
in  a  sense  the  diverse  demands  of  the  conservative  and  the 
liberal  schools.  In  some  way  or  another,  this  insistent  call 
of  the  new  era  must  be  heard  and  heeded.  It  will  not  be 
and  cannot  be  suppressed;  and  he  is  a  wise  exponent  of 
traditional  education  who  appreciates  the  potency  and  the 
urgency  of  that  call,  and  is  willing  to  concede  enough  of  the 
old  regime  to  give  a  larger  function  to  the  new,  and  thus 
to  unify  the  past  and  present. 

Though  Mr.  Huxley  holds  an  extreme  view  when  he 
insists  that  culture  can  be  secured  as  fully  from  purely 
scientific  studies  as  from  literary  and  linguistic,  it  is  also 
true  that  a  comprehensive  and  satisfactory  type  of  culture 
cannot  be  secured  apart  from  adding  to  literature  and 
language  that  particular  element  of  education  that  comes 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  industrial,  as  well  as  the  liberal 
arts;  of  the  great  facts  and  truths  of  history  and  social  in- 
stitutions; of  the  study  of  physical  nature  and  the  political 
development  of  men  and  nations.  Thus  will  the  New  Era 
in  Higher  Education  interact  with  the  Old  Era,  the  Arts 
with  the  Sciences,  literature  and  language  with  the  daily 
life  of  the  race;  thus  securing  stability  and  ever  increasing 
progress  and  best  preparing  the  American  undergraduate 
to  take  his  place  and  do  his  part  in  the  inspiring  work  of  the 
modern  world. 


26  Timely  Topics 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  MIND 

The  close  of  the  World-War  reopens  many  old  problems 
either  for  elimination  or  revision  and  originates  a  wide 
variety  of  new  problems  that  must  be  examined  and  settled 
in  the  light  of  new  conditions.  These  problems  for  their 
solution  require  an  order  of  mind  hitherto  uncalled  for.  No 
man  can  properly  approach  and  discuss  these  questions  by 
any  canons  of  criticism  as  yet  obtaining,  nor  can  he,  least  of 
all,  discuss  them  in  any  other  attitude  than  that  of  an 
observer  and  student  of  world  conditions.  This  order  of 
mind  may  be  known  by  various  names.  As  we  are  treating 
of  conditions  largely  political,  we  may  call  it,  The  Inter- 
national Mind.     Some  of  its  characteristics  may  be  cited. 

I.  It  is  a  Comprehensive  Mind,  as  distinct  from  anything 
partisan,  provincial,  local,  or  even  national,  cosmopolitan  in 
its  compass.  The  field  of  its  operation  is  the  world,  so  that 
nothing  short  of  the  world  at  large  will  answer  for  its  exer- 
cise. It  illustrates  what  Bacon  calls  "Universality,"  on 
which  all  progress  is  based.  This  age  is  certainly  not  one 
for  limited  outlook,  but  only  for  a  breadth  of  vision  that  has 
no  assigned  boundary,  that  sweeps  the  farthest  limit  of  the 
horizon  and  takes  in  all  truth  and  knowledge  for  its  prov- 
ince. What  is  wished  here  is  Scope,  "ample  room  and  verge 
enough"  to  take  in  the  whole  situation  in  its  mental  range, 
continental  in  its  area  as  contrasted  with  the  merely  insular 
and  seeking  for  conclusions  that  will  be  acknowledged  the 
world  around. 

II.  It  is  a  Catholic  Mind,  as  distinct  from  anything  in 
the  line  of  narrowness  and  bigotry,  insisting  on  examining 


The  International  Mind  27 

truth  untrammelled  by  any  preconceived  opinion  and  giving 
all  due  weight  to  those  great  generalizations  that  are  the 
result  of  an  unbiassed  outlook.  It  is  this  catholicity  of  con- 
ception for  which  the  large-minded  men  of  every  age  have 
contended  and  which  has  lain  at  the  root  of  all  the  great 
reformations  of  the  world,  and  emphasized  with  imposing 
significance  in  this  era  of  agitation  and  reform.  This  is  the 
true  Liberalism  for  which  the  world  is  waiting  more  im- 
patiently than  ever,  a  solemn  protest  against  the  tyranny  of 
an  extreme  conservatism  and  insisting  that  in  the  ultimate 
issues  mere  traditionalism  must  give  place  to  advanced 
thinking  and  the  bounds  of  mental  freedom  be  ever  widened. 
It  is  this  catholic  tendency  that  is  liberalizing  the  govern- 
ments of  the  world,  a  form  of  civil  polity  which  is  simply 
another  name  for  democracy.  The  democratic  temper  is 
eminently  catholic  and  will  not  brook  political  bigotry.  This 
is  what  is  meant,  moreover,  by  the  Open  Mind,  open  to  all 
light  and  evidence,  friendly  to  new  truth  as  new  and  to  any 
new  interpretation  of  established  truth,  a  student  at  large  in 
the  great  out-of-door  world  where  life  is  at  its  fullest  and 
conditions  are  ever  changing,  ready  to  accept  conclusions 
hitherto  rejected  and  placing  itself  right  at  the  centre  of  the 
strongest  currents  of  thought  and  life.  The  catholic  mind 
is  thus  committed  to  the  principle  of  free  trade  as  against 
exclusion  in  the  intellectual  commerce  of  the  world,  opening 
its  entrance  for  all  ingenuous  seekers  after  truth  and  claim- 
ing a  similar  free  entry  into  every  harbour  of  the  world's 
thought.  Nothing  is  more  indicative  of  mental  sanity  in 
men  or  nations  than  a  willingness  to  surrender  long  cher- 
ished opinions  when  proved  to  be  untenable. 


28  Timely  Topics 

III.  It  is  a  Balanced  Mind,  marked  by  poise  and  equi- 
poise, and  as  such  proof  against  violent  transitions,  char- 
acterized by  mental  steadiness  in  the  midst  of  disturbing 
agencies.  It  is  because  events  and  conditions  are  seen  in 
their  entirety  as  involving  world  interests  that  such  a  mind 
is  stabilized.  Mental  balance  is  as  rare  as  it  is  desirable,  a 
state  of  stable  equilibrium  as  essential  in  thought  as  in 
physics,  a  maintenance  of  the  centre  of  gravity  by  which  dire 
disaster  is  averted  and  all  intellectual  processes  well  ordered. 

IV.  It  is  a  Modern  Mind  as  distinct  from  being  Medi- 
aeval. Internationalism  as  a  principle  in  the  life  of  states 
may  be  said  to  have  originated  at  the  Reformation  of  the 
1 6th  century,  when  bigotry  in  church  and  state  received  its 
death-sentence  and  nations  for  the  first  time  thought  in 
terms  of  modern  life.  From  the  Elizabethan  Era  onward 
the  principle  advanced  by  slow  and  difficult  stages  until,  at 
the  opening  of  the  last  century,  it  may  be  said  to  have  estab- 
lished its  place,  coming  into  increasing  potency  in  this  second 
decade  of  the  20th  century  as  the  direct  result  of  that  tragic 
upheaval  from  which  the  world  has  just  emerged.  We  are 
now  in  the  Golden  Age  of  Modernism,  and  they  only  are 
wise  who  recognize  the  fact  and  act  in  obedience  to  it.  It 
is  from  Lord  Bacon,  the  author  of  the  "Novum  Organum" 
— the  new  method  in  philosophy  that  we  read — "Antiquity 
deserveth  that  reverence  that  men  should  make  a  stand  there- 
upon and  discover  what  is  the  best  way,  but  when  the  dis- 
covery is  well  taken  then  to  make  Progression."  It  is  this 
political  and  mental  progression  that  marks  the  present  age 
as  distinctly  Modern — a  definitely  New  Era. 

Such  are  the  Characteristics  of  the  International  Mind — 


The  International  Mind  29 

Comprehensiveness,  Catholicity,  Balance  and  Modernism,  a 
type  of  mind  never  more  needed  than  now  to  regulate  the 
world.  When  so  many  statesmen,  so  called,  are  discussing 
world  problems  from  the  standpoint  of  the  locality  which 
they  are  supposed  to  represent,  when  so  many  theologians 
are  still  living  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  so  many  uni- 
versity men  are  still  interpreting  educational  problems  in  the 
light  of  the  Schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages,  what  is  surely 
needed  is  the  International  Mind,  universality  of  thought 
and  outlook.  Especially  in  the  sphere  of  the  civic  and 
political  is  this  order  of  mind  demanded.  One  of  the  most 
damaging  disclosures  of  the  late  war  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
in  the  parliaments  of  the  people,  and  especially  in  the  Con- 
gress of  our  own  country,  there  are  so  few  national  repre- 
sentatives who  seem  to  have  the  least  idea  of  what  is  meant 
by  Internationalism  in  statecraft,  or  what  the  urgent  need  is 
for  many-sided,  wide-minded  men,  men  of  such  character 
and  calibre,  such  largeness  of  nature  and  spaciousness  of 
view,  as  to  look  out  from  the  confines  of  their  own  political 
environment  into  the  open  area  of  the  world's  needs,  and 
legislate  for  human  interests  at  large.  We  need  another 
Bacon  to  arise  and  pen  another  Novum  Organum — a  new 
philosophy  of  legislation  for  the  Modern  World. 


II 


THE  CALL  FOR  CIVIC  LEADERSHIP 

One  of  the  most  urgent  issues  of  the  hour  demanding  the 
best  thought  of  the  wisest  men  is  how  to  secure  and  con- 
serve the  fruits  of  peace.  No  problems  of  a  strictly  military 
character  that  emerged  as  the  late  tragic  war  went  on  made 
a  more  urgent  appeal  to  military  men  for  discussion  and 
settlement  than  the  inevitable  problems  of  peace  now  make 
on  the  civilians  of  the  country,  while  the  difficulties  and 
possible  perils  in  the  solution  of  such  problems  are  no  less 
pronounced  than  those  which  confronted  the  officers  of 
the  army.  The  call  is  for  leadership,  and  while  addressed 
to  the  general  body  of  American  citizens  without  distinction, 
is  especially  addressed  to  the  young  men  of  the  nation  as  to 
those  best  fitted  in  age,  opportunity  and  necessary  equip- 
ment for  the  high  behests  of  the  hour,  a  call  as  insistent  in 
days  of  peace  as  the  call  for  volunteers  in  the  days  of  war. 
Herein  lies  one  of  the  tragedies  of  the  situation  that  con- 
fronts the  nation  as  thousands  of  the  choicest  of  these  men 
have  made  the  supreme  sacrifice  and  are  beyond  the  heeding 
of  their  country's  call.  Already  they  have  responded  to  an 
earlier  call  and  have  fully  done  their  share  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  nation's  honor.  These  were  they  on  whom  the 
land  was  relying  for  future  service,  and  by  reason  of  their 
sacrifice  of  life  have  made  the  responsibility  of  their  sur- 
vivors all  the  more  weighty  and  irresistible.     The  duties 

30 


The  Call  for  Civic  Leadership  31 

thus  devolving  on  what  Matthew  Arnold  called  the  "Rem- 
nant," are  thus  redoubled  as  the  nation  solemnly  commits 
the  destinies  of  the  people  especially  to  them  for  guidance 
and  safe-keeping. 

Nor  is  there  a  sphere  of  citizen  service  in  which  such 
leadership  is  not  needed — in  government  and  society,  in 
the  industrial  world  and  in  the  educational  and  religious 
world.  It  is,  however,  in  the  province  of  what  we  may 
term  the  civic  that  this  demand  is  most  emphatic — a  call 
for  specifically  legislative  leadership  by  which  the  highest 
political  interests  of  the  people  may  be  secured  and  main- 
tained, and  the  country  advanced  steadily  onward  in  the 
friendly  rivalry  of  nations.  In  the  highest  offices  of  the 
government  and  in  the  least  conspicuous — in  Congress,  as 
senators  and  representatives,  in  the  Supreme  Court  and 
lower  courts,  in  the  governorship  of  states  and  the  mayor- 
alties of  cities  and  towns,  in  the  common  councils  of  bor- 
oughs and  municipalities,  in  fact,  wherever  men  are  needed 
for  administrative  functions,  a  supply  must  be  found  from 
the  ranks  of  those  young  men  who  will  thus  be  able  to 
assume  and  fulfill  the  role  of  civic  leaders  and  thus  sub- 
serve the  highest  civic  interests. 

The  qualifications  needed  for  such  a  ministry  are  worthy 
of  emphasis.  First  of  all,  is  Civic  Knowledge — a  compre- 
hensive and  an  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  nature  and 
forms  and  obligations  of  civil  government,  all  that  pertains 
to  the  constitution  and  function  of  the  state — its  jurisdiction 
and  its  limitations,  what  is  involved  in  citizenship,  and 
what  citizens  of  a  free  commonwealth  have  a  right  to  expect 
of  those  whose  leadership  has  been  acknowledged  and  who 


$2  Timely  Topics 

are  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  right  administration  of 
public  interests. 

Something  more  is  involved  here  than  a  possession  of 
general  intelligence  or  average  mental  equipment;  a  specific 
political  intelligence,  a  clear  apprehension  of  what  civic 
polity  is  and  what  it  involves  and  demands  on  the  part  of 
those  who  are  called  to  represent  and  apply  it.  It  is  a  hope- 
ful sign  in  modern  educational  programmes  that  this 
demand  for  a  broader  and  clearer  knowledge  of  statecraft, 
the  process  and  function  of  government,  is  being  more  fully 
met  so  as  to  qualify  American  youth  for  the  place  of  civic 
leadership. 

The  study  of  history,  jurisprudence,  economics,  social 
institutions  and  political  science  is  given  an  ever  larger 
recognition  in  common  with  scientific,  philosophic  and 
literary  subjects.  (2)  Closely  connected  with  this  primary 
requisite  is  that  of  Organization  and  Initiative,  a  distinct 
and  well  defined  aptitude  for  executive  duty.  We  are  living 
in  days  when  a  civic  leader  must  have  something  of  the 
same  capability  that  is  demanded  of  a  military  leader,  that 
of  collecting  and  consolidating  the  various  forces  and  facil- 
ities under  his  control  so  as  to  secure  the  speediest  and  best 
results. 

It  is  related  of  one  of  the  ancient  tribes  of  Israel  "that 
they  had  understanding  of  their  times,  to  know  what  Israel 
ought  to  do,"  and  it  is  especially  required  of  a  leader  in  the 
state  to  know  just  what  ought  to  be  done  under  existing 
conditions  and  so  to  reconstruct  and  manipulate  the  agencies 
at  his  command  as  to  meet  the  urgent  needs  of  the  hour. 
Organization  and  Initiative  will  secure  results  at  such  a 


The  Call  for  Civic  Leadership  33 

juncture,  attainable  by  no  other  agency,  so  that  while 
the  incompetent  man  is  dreaming-  and  debating  the  real 
executive  will  be  reaching  immediate  and  effective  results. 

(3)  A  further  qualification  is  Civic  Courage — the  cour- 
age of  conviction  and  of  action,  a  positiveness  of  character 
and  official  procedure  that  will  maintain  its  ground,  let  the 
opposition  be  what  it  may,  a  real  vertebrate  tenacity.  So 
insistent,  aggressive  and  insolent  are  the  agencies  and 
influences  now  at  work  against  well-organized  and  well- 
ordered  government  and  all  well-established  social  institu- 
tions, so  prone  are  many  of  the  heads  of  the  industries  to 
encourage  disorder  and  revolt  under  the  guise  of  economic 
privilege,  and  so  extreme  are  many  of  the  so-called  theories 
of  socialism,  that  somewhere  there  must  be  found  a  body 
of  men  to  resist  to  the  bitter  end  these  encroachments  on 
popular  government  and  civic  order.  These  real  servants 
of  the  state  must  be  found  in  the  young  men  of  the  land 
who  are  qualified  to  lead  their  fellow-citizens  along  the  lines 
of  civic  duty  and  safety  and  progress.  Civilian  leaders 
must,  in  fine,  have  something  of  that  same  type  of  heroic 
bravery  and  fortitude  that  is  essential  to  military  leaders, 
and  fight  to  the  finish  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and 
order. 

(4)  A  final  requisite  is  Integrity,  which  in  its  very  ety- 
mology means  that  a  man  should  be  every  inch  a  man, 
unflinching  in  his  avowal  and  defense  of  those  fundamental 
principles  of  character  and  conduct  on  which  the  structure 
of  government  and  society  is  based.  There  is  no  greater 
need  of  the  modern  state  and  all  modern  institutions  than 
that  for  men  who  are  absolutely  trustworthy  in  any  func- 


34  Timely  Topics 

tion,  official  or  unofficial,  to  which  they  may  be  called — 
reliable  men,  or  as  a  late  American  scholar  was  wont  to 
call  them — reli-on-able  men,  men  on  whom,  as  the  word 
means,  you  could  fall  back,  assured  that  they  would  be 
found  dependable.  Never  has  the  call  for  this  order  of 
leaders  been  more  insistent  than  it  is  at  this  critical  juncture 
in  the  world's  history.  Whom  can  we  trust  or  should  we 
trust,  if  not  those  supposed  guardians  of  the  people,  who 
subordinating  all  personal  and  selfish  interests  to  the  public 
good,  should  invite  and  expect  the  absolute  confidence  of 
the  people  in  their  character  and  civic  functions,  without 
reproach  or  without  fear  and  justify  unqualified  faith  in 
their  motives  and  services! 

Such  are  the  essential  qualifications  of  leadership  and 
hence  it  is  evident  that  a  special  call  is  issued  to  the  colleges 
of  the  country  to  furnish  to  the  state  such  a  body  of  men, 
men  of  civic  intelligence,  or  independent  initiative,  of  cour- 
age and  of  character.  The  fact  that  in  the  late  war  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  American  college  men  who  entered  the 
service  became  in  due  time  officers  in  the  army  would  lead 
us  to  look  for  a  similar  ratio  of  leaders  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  civic  service,  in  the  subsequent  days  of  peace,  when 
the  need  of  such  leadership  is  even  more  urgent. 

When  military  prowess  must  give  place  to  mental  and 
moral  prowess,  and  civic  and  social  reconstruction  must 
repair  the  ravages  of  war  and  reinstate  the  moral  forces  of 
the  world  in  fullest  function,  the  Christian  college  and  the 
Christian  church  constitute  the  true  hope  of  the  world,  while 
the  opportunity  thus  offered  to  college  men  is  as  inspiring 
as  it  is  obligatory.     That  the  educational  institutions  of  the 


The  Call  for  College  Men  35 

country  are  realizing  this  duty  and  privilege  and  are  address- 
ing themselves  to  it  with  unwonted  zeal  is  one  of  the  most 
promising  signs  of  the  hour. 


THE  CALL  FOR  COLLEGE  MEN  IN 
THE  COMMERCIAL  WORLD 

As  late  as  the  opening  of  the  present  century  the  college 
world  and  the  business  world  were  widely  separated  in  spirit 
as  well  as  in  function,  nor  was  it  supposed  possible  that  any 
bond  of  mutual  interest  could  unite  them.  College  men  in 
politics,  especially  in  the  various  branches  of  the  diplomatic 
service,  as  exemplified  in  our  earlier  history  in  the  persons 
of  Irving,  Bancroft,  Hawthorne  and  Lowell,  were  an  ac- 
cepted factor  in  national  and  international  administration. 
In  the  national  legislature  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  several 
states  this  educational  representation  was  more  or  less 
present,  but  not  until  recent  years  has  such  a  body  of  men 
been  appealed  to  as  a  necessary  factor  in  commercial  circles. 
Hitherto,  it  was  stoutly  contended  by  leaders  in  the  business 
world  that  business  was  one  thing  and  higher  education 
another,  that  men  of  affairs  by  the  very  nature  of  their  call- 
ing could  have  but  little  affiliation  with  men  of  letters  and  of 
learning,  that  the  best  course  open  to  those  who  were  con- 
templating commercial  life  was  to  pass  directly  from  the 
common  school  to  business  itself  in  its  initial  stages  and  by 
actual  experience  secure  the  training  they  most  needed  to 
ensure  advancement  and  the  greatest  ultimate  success.  It 
was  practically  the  old  theory  of  apprenticeship  as  seen  in 
the  manual  arts  by  which  alone  an  apprentice  was  to  prepare 


36  Timely  Topics 

himself  for  efficient  service  in  his  chosen  trade  or  industry. 

Just  here,  once  again,  we  are  confronted  with  the  lessons 
of  the  late  war  and  find  one  of  them  to  lie  precisely  along 
this  commercial  line,  so  that  existing  theories  give  place  to 
new  ideals  as  presented  by  new  conditions  and  the  real  rela- 
tion of  college  men  to  the  world  of  business  is  prominently 
present.  In  the  exigencies  of  the  war  the  government  found 
itself  face  to  face  with  serious  problems,  one  of  them  being 
that  of  finding  suitable  men  for  the  unwonted  demands  of 
the  hour — men  in  whom  the  government  could  confide  for 
the  various  forms  of  service  needed.  On  grounds  of  im- 
mediate necessity  the  colleges  were  summoned  to  furnish 
needed  men,  a  call  to  which  there  was  as  enthusiastic  a  re- 
sponse as  to  the  demand  for  soldiers  and  sailors.  It  is  now 
an  open  secret  that  the  government  was  not  a  little  surprised 
by  the  rare  aptitude  which  members  of  college  faculties  and 
undergraduates  evinced  in  all  the  departmental  and  adminis- 
trative functions  to  which  they  were  assigned,  displaying  a 
grade  and  measure  of  specific  commercial  ability  for  which 
they  had  not  received  credit  hitherto  and  which  the  govern- 
ment proposed  more  and  more  to  utilize.  This  order  of 
efficiency,  when  the  war  ended,  was  in  immediate  demand  in 
general  business  circles  and  important  industrial  vocations. 
Banks  and  financial  corporations  were  in  the  market  for  the 
services  of  these  men  now  highly  accredited  by  war  service 
and  all  the  traditional  prejudices  against  the  entrance  of 
highly  educated  men  into  business  disappeared  and  a  new 
regime  of  demand  and  supply  was  instituted. 

Professor  Erskine,  Chairman  of  the  Army  Education 
Commission  in  France  at  the  close  of  the  war,  goes  so  far 


The  Call  for  College  Men  ^y 

as  to  predict  that  in  the  near  future  there  will  be  a  close 
connection  not  only  between  our  universities  and  com- 
mercial life,  but  that  their  schedules  will  find  a  place  even 
for  the  manual  and  industrial  arts  so  that,  as  he  insists, 
"the  teaching  of  trades  should  be  enriched  by  contact  with 
the  spirit  of  scholarship,"  this  being  one  of  the  ways  in 
which  the  pending  problem  of  the  social  order  could  be 
solved. 

If  it  be  asked  where  the  special  ground  or  reason  for  this 
call  for  college  men  in  business  is  found  to  be,  it  may  be 
answered,  in  the  scarcity  of  competent  and  reliable  men,  as 
taken  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  non-collegiate  classes — 
men  of  foresight,  initiative  and  independent  judgment,  who 
could  rise  above  the  mere  material  plane  of  profit  and  loss, 
dollars  and  cents,  and  look  at  business  as  a  high  vocation 
demanding  a  high  order  of  ability  for  its  right  discharge. 
The  demand  was  for  men  that  were  not  merely  business 
men,  slaves  to  the  mechanical  duties  of  the  shop  and  the 
counter,  but  men  of  intellectual  outlook  and  comprehension 
who  could  look  at  commercial  interests  along  the  broadest 
lines  and  connect  them  with  the  highest  national  progress. 
Nor  should  it  be  concealed  that  in  such  a  call  for  high-grade 
men,  reliability  has  been  as  much  stressed  as  competence — 
men  not  only  of  mature  judgment  were  demanded,  but  men 
possessed  of  an  acute  sense  of  personal  moral  accountability, 
to  whom  the  most  important  business  interests  could  be 
safely  committed.  It  is  interesting  to  note  just  here  that 
such  men  have  often  been  selected  with  reference  to  inter- 
national business,  where  the  province  of  operation  is  wider 
and  where  something  more  than  a  merely  local   or  pro- 


38  Timely  Topics 

vincial  type  of  mind  is  needed.  This  has  been  of  late  a 
distinctive  feature  in  economic  interests  that  lie  beyond  the 
nation  itself  and  call  for  breadth  of  vision  and  an  ability 
to  view  business  as  vitally  related  to  all  other  forms  of 
human  activity,  at  home  and  abroad. 

To  this  call  the  brightest  young  men  of  our  colleges  are 
responding  and  are  in  special  preparation  to  meet  the  grow- 
ing demand.  Students  who  hitherto  have  had  professional 
life  in  mind,  more  especially  that  of  law,  are  fitting  them- 
selves for  commercial  pursuits,  while  it  goes  without  saying 
that  as  never  before,  scientific  students,  as  a  class,  are  in 
demand  in  all  the  departments  of  the  industrial  arts,  where 
technical  skill  is  needed  and  where,  as  in  no  other  sphere, 
the  mental  factors  and  the  mechanical  meet  and  interact 
to  a  common  end. 

It  is  in  place  to  add  that  in  this  commercial  demand  a 
specific  literary  feature  is  apparent,  in  that  young  men  are 
sought  who  have  a  good  command  of  English,  who  thus  can 
be  of  exceptional  service  in  the  composition  of  reports  and 
in  commercial  correspondence — masters  of  a  clear,  vigor- 
ous and  attractive  English  style  so.  as  to  commend  them- 
selves and  the  firms  they  represent  to  the  intelligent  busi- 
ness world.  This  department  of  commercial  composition 
and  correspondence  is  assuming  ever  increasing  importance. 

The  special  Benefits  of  this  somewhat  new  relation  are 
worthy  of  note : 

1.  One  of  them  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  evinces  and 
confirms  the  true  relation  of  the  Cultural  and  the  Vocational 
so  that  it  is  reserved  for  this  modern  era  to  find  an  approxi- 
mate solution  of  this  old  and  vexing  problem.     Men  of 


The  Call  for  College  Men  39 

affairs  and  men  of  the  library  and  the  study  are  brought 
into  close  and  confidential  contact,  whereby  the  differences 
that  separate  them  to  a  large  extent  disappear  as  they  dis- 
cover increasing  forms  of  unity.  The  benefits  are  seen  to 
be  mutual — a  more  practical  and  useful  element  being  im- 
parted to  the  cultural  order  and  a  more  distinctively  in- 
tellectual element  being  imparted  to  the  vocational.  Business 
is  emancipated  from  its  purely  sordid  features  and  culture 
is  freed  from  its  manifest  tendency  to  exclusiveness  and  a 
sense  of  superiority.  It  is  in  reality  but  another  phase  of 
that  levelling  influence  induced  by  the  war  by  which  classes 
hitherto  disjoined  are  brought  together  on  a  common  level 
for  common  ends. 

2.  A  further  benefit  of  this  new  relation  of  cordial  co- 
operation is  found  in  the  fact  that  this  sympathetic  interest 
between  mental  pursuits  and  the  world  of  commerce  and  the 
trades  may  be  one  and  should  be  one  of  the  Mediating 
Agents  between  Capital  and  Labor — the  most  perplexing 
problem  of  the  day,  by  which  the  educated  men  of  the 
nation  may  in  a  sense  come  in  between  the  capitalist  and  the 
daily  laborer  and  induce  an  increasing  spirit  of  harmony 
making  it  clear  that  no  necessary  antagonism  should  exist 
between  the  merchant  and  the  miner,  but  that  each  order  in 
its  way  should  fill  its  place  and  do  its  work  in  full  recogni- 
tion of  the  rights  of  others.  Certainly  the  scholar  in  politics 
and  the  scholar  in  business  should  lift  the  science  of  state- 
craft and  the  functions  of  business  to  an  ever  higher  level 
and  be  a  distinctively  assuaging  and  harmonizing  factor 
against  all  discordant  tendencies.  Whatever  individual  or 
organization  contributes  to  such  an  ameliorating  influence 


40  Timely  Topics 

will  place  the  modern  world  of  industrial  unrest  under  last- 
ing indebtedness. 

Men  of  books  and  men  of  business  should  alike  be  students 
of  the  Humanities —  seeking  above  all  special  interests  to 
further  the  interests  of  the  world  at  large,  while  in  this 
increasing  fraternization  of  our  colleges  and  commercial 
circles,  there  is  seen  one  of  the  many  agencies  now  in 
evidence  by  which  the  masses  and  the  classes  are  to  be 
reconciled  and  related.  Herein  lies  one  of  the  great  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  college  world  and  business  world  of 
to-day — to  lessen  all  divergent  agencies  between  them  and 
unify  their  interests  and  influence  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
peace  and  progress  of  the  world. 

THE  PROBLEMS  AND  RESPONSIBILITIES 

OF  PEACE 

If,  as  the  poet  states  it,  "Peace  hath  her  victories  no  less 
renowned  than  war,"  then  it  behooves  the  conquering  nation 
to  secure  and  ratify  these  victories  so  that  they  may  in  part 
compensate  for  the  losses  of  war  and  become  a  determining 
factor  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  nation's  highest  progress. 
Winning  the  peace  is  a  necessary  sequel  to  winning  the  war 
and  may  be  as  difficult  a  contest  as  the  war  itself.  This  is 
especially  true  when  a  tragic  struggle  so  unexpectedly  closes 
and,  as  if  in  a  moment,  changes  the  situation  in  all  its  phases 
and  calls  for  immediate  and  positive  measures  to  meet  it. 
So  radical  and  sudden  is  the  transformation,  that  for  the 
time,  the  wisest  minds  are  bewildered  and  there  is  serious 
difficulty  in  assuaging  the  disturbing  and  conflicting  elements 


The  Problems  and  Responsibilities  of  Peace        41 

and  reaching  anything  like  an  established  order.  The  world 
is  veritably  overturned.  All  the  varied  forces  of  the  state 
are  in  process  of  ferment,  well  nigh  chaotic.  On  all  sides 
open  questions  emerge  for  discussion  and  settlement — some 
of  them  modifications  of  prior  problems  and  many  of  them 
altogether  new  to  the  most  experienced  observer  of  national 
and  international  progress — problems  religious,  political, 
educational,  commercial,  industrial  and  social,  affecting  in 
fact  every  function  of  corporate  life.  To  thoughtful  minds 
the  dominant  impression  of  the  hour  is  one  of  national  and 
individual  responsibility,  so  as,  in  a  measure,  at  least,  to 
take  in  the  situation  as  it  confronts  the  intelligence  and  con- 
science of  the  modern  world  and  meet  the  new  and  impos- 
ing obligations  that  arise.  Nothing  less  is  needed  than  the 
most  virile  elements  of  character,  courage,  constancy, 
patience  and  fortitude,  and  a  fixed  resolve  to  take  full  ad- 
vantage of  the  rare  opportunities  offered  and  interpret  the 
lessons  of  the  war  in  such  wise  as  to  bring  unwonted 
blessing  to  the  generations  following.  Some  of  these 
emerging  problems  may  be  cited — the  proper  place,  if  any, 
of  a  military  regime  in  civic  life — what  Mr.  James  calls 
"The  Moral  Equivalent  of  War,"  the  effect  of  war  on  a 
nation's  language  and  literature  and  general  culture,  and 
morale,  what  is  the  best  guarantee  against  a  recurrence  of 
these  ends  that  issue  from  a  great  national  struggle  and 
what  measures  may  best  serve  to  consolidate  and  maintain 
these  possible  benefits  that  accrue  from  such  a  conflict. 
Two  or  three  additional  suggestions  of  special  interest  and 
import  may  engage  us: 

1.     The  initial  issue  of  the  hour  is  one  of  Construction. 


42  Timely  Topics 

Just  as  on  the  material  side,  the  first  essential  at  the  close 
of  a  conflict  is  to  repair  the  waste  of  war,  to  clear  away  all 
obstructions  and  lay  the  basis  of  a  new  industrial  order,  so 
in  the  higher  sphere  of  the  civic  and  social,  the  educational 
and  ethical,  a  real  beginning  must  be  made  in  the  way  of 
reparation.  The  corporate  life  of  the  people  in  all  its  func- 
tions must  be  laid  on  new  foundations  in  the  light  of  present 
and  prospective  needs.  It  is  nothing  less  than  what  the 
historian  Green  would  call,  the  making  of  a  state.  The 
process  is  constructive  and  reconstructive.  Herein  lies  the 
need  of  the  organizing  faculty  of  a  people,  a  positive  ability 
in  the  line  of  constituting  a  new  order,  a  formative  function 
calling  into  play  the  best  abilities  of  a  people  eager  to  take 
advantage  of  existing  emergencies.  In  the  church,  con- 
structive theology  is  needed ;  in  the  state,  constructive  legis- 
lation; in  education,  a  constructive  method  of  mental  dis- 
cipline, and  in  the  community  at  large  a  constructive  eco- 
nomic order,  if  so  be  in  all  these  departments  the  best 
results  may  be  reached. 

2.  A  further  responsibility  has  to  do  with  the  attitude 
of  Stronger  and  Advanced  peoples  to  those  that  are  Weaker, 
more  or  less  dependent  and  but  partially  advanced  toward 
the  highest  forms  of  civic  and  national  life.  This  attitude 
must  be  one  of  helpfulness — a  thoroughly  disinterested  and 
philanthropic  relation  to  those  in  need  and  who  are  looking 
to  more  highly  favored  nations  for  guidance  and  aid. 
There  are  few  chapters  in  the  history  of  states,  the  world 
over,  more  damaging  and  disheartening  than  those  which 
trace  the  relationship  of  older  and  stronger  powers  to  the 
struggling  peoples  with  whom  in  one  way  or  another  they 


The  Problems  and  Responsibilities  of  Peace        43 

are  brought  into  political  contact.  Not  only  in  such  flagrant 
examples  as  the  government  of  the  Congo  under  Leopold, 
or  that  of  Spain  with  her  West  Indian  possessions,  or  that  of 
Germany  with  her  African  dependencies,  or  that  of  Russia 
and  Turkey,  but  European  nations  with  scarcely  an  excep- 
tion, and  such  Asiatic  Empires  as  Japan  must  be  arraigned 
under  this  indictment.  The  prevailing  policy,  the  world 
over,  has  been  one  of  exploitation  and  not  of  just  and 
humane  jurisdiction,  a  persistent  purpose  backed  by  military 
force  to  despoil  dependent  peoples  to  the  advantage  of  the 
despoiler  and  thus  to  frustrate  the  very  ends  which  such 
political  control  was  supposed  to  subserve. 

In  fine,  colossal  selfishness  has  been  the  conspicuous 
policy  in  colonial  history,  a  closed  door  to  all  national  aspi- 
ration, subjection  instead  of  support;  the  studied  suppres- 
sion of  all  those  natural  ambitions  which  every  smaller 
nation  is  supposed  to  entertain.  Guizot  and  Hallam  and 
Buckle  and  others  who  have  traced  for  us  what  is  called  the 
progress  of  civilization  have  been  obliged  to  confess  that  the 
record  has  been  mainly  one  of  oppression.  Accepting  the 
principle  in  national  life  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  they 
have  often  made  it  impossible  for  the  fittest  to  survive, 
inasmuch  as  from  their  point  of  view  it  is  only  the  strong 
and  self-sustaining  who  have  any  claim  to  survival,  all 
other  peoples  as  dependent  being  thereby  simply  contribu- 
tive  to  those  that  are  independent. 

3.  A  further  obligation  issuing  from  the  late  war  is  that 
of  a  higher  type  of  International  Diplomacy.  Our  English 
word,  diplomacy,  in  its  original  Greek  signification,  means 
a  document  folded  double,  in  which  the  emphasis  has  been 


44  Timely  Topics 

laid  on  the  word,  double,  in  an  ethical  sense,  so  that  the 
science  or  art  of  diplomacy  has  been  practically  synonymous 
with  double  dealing,  whereby  the  word  is  no  sooner  sounded 
than  we  connect  it  with  intrigue,  with  some  sort  of  political 
strategy  or  subterfuge,  with  anything  but  just  and  honor- 
able procedure.  A  recent  historian  in  his  study  of  Greece 
calls  our  attention  to  "the  intricacies  of  modern  diplomacy 
which  can  seldom  go  straight  to  a  mark  in  matters  of  the 
clearest  right  and  duty,"  meaning  by  "intricacies"  any  form 
of  political  juggling  by  which  the  worse  is  made  to  appear 
the  better  reason,  any  device  by  which  the  opposing  party 
may  be  misled  or  manipulated.  So,  it  comes  to  pass  that 
when  a  body  of  diplomats  is  convened  to  discuss  and  settle 
great  questions  of  state  and  supposedly  on  behalf  of  good 
government,  they  at  once  assume  the  diplomatic  attitude, 
well  understood  to  be  one  of  shrewdness,  equivocation  and 
mental  reservation,  anything  but  openness  and  ingenuous- 
ness. All  parties  take  the  defensive,  cloak  real  intentions 
under  a  maze  of  expressed  intentions  and  insist  that  lan- 
guage of  a  political  type  is  the  art  of  concealing  thought. 
Were  all  the  cards  laid  on  the  table  in  full  view,  the  session 
would  be  short  indeed.  If  one  would  read  a  history  as 
interesting  as  a  romance,  he  must  sit  down  to  the  perusal 
of  the  record  of  European  Diplomacy  from  the  days  of 
Machiavelli  and  Metternich  to  those  of  Otto  Bismarck  and 
his  school.  As  a  typical  example  the  Congress  of  Berlin 
might  be  selected — a  truly  Bismarckian  Council  at  which  the 
Iron  Chancellor  held  the  winning  cards  well  in  hand  and 
played  the  game  in  full  accord  with  his  theory  of  statecraft, 
the  result  being  that  the  initial  steps  were  then  taken  which 


The  Problems  and  Responsibilities  of  Peace        45 

led  to  the  late  war.     To  think  of  Bismarck  and  Disraeli  at 
the  same  table  vieing  with  each  other  to  promote  the  best 
interests   of   Europe   irrespective   of   special   German   and 
English  politics  would  be  to  indulge  in  a  serio-comic  exer- 
cise of  mind.     The  indictment  to  be  made  against  such  a 
council  could  be  framed  in  the  same  terms  as  those  made 
by  the  Allied  Powers  against  the  Ex-Kaiser  "a  supreme 
offense  against  international  morality  and  the  sanctity  of 
treaties"  not  to  speak  of  other  Counts  that  might  be  justly 
included.     We  can  conceive  of  no  more  urgently  needed 
reform  as  a  new  world-order  is  in  the  process  of  making 
than  that  of  international  diplomacy — an  order  of  political 
dealing  based  on  common  interests  in  which  the  separate 
nations  shall  be  given  their  deserved  place  and  privileges. 
The  dream  is  Utopian,  but  still  it  lies  within  the  possibility 
of  partial  realization  as  the  common  conscience  of  the  world 
is  quickened.    Nor  has  the  Christian  Church  been  blameless 
at  this  point.     In  countries  especially  where  church  and 
state  were  under  one  jurisdiction  ecclesiastical   statesmen 
were  in  evidence,  and  it  was  often  a  question  difficult  to 
determine  as  to  which  of  these  factors,  the  ecclesiastical  or 
the  secular,  excelled  in  political  intrigue.    From  the  days  of 
Hildebrand  and  Loyala  on  to  those  of  Richelieu  this  diplo- 
matic chicanery  has  been  so  pronounced  as  to  control  the 
policies  of  Europe.    Popes  and  cardinals,  kings  and  queens, 
chancellors  and  ministers  of  state  were  in  frequent  collu- 
sion to  effect  their  several  interests ;  wherein  it  was  assumed 
that  diplomatic  dealings  as  such  were  not  supposed  to  con- 
form to  the  strictest  code  of  biblical  ethics. 
The  greatest  danger  that  lay  in  the  line  of  the  recently 


46  Timely  Topics 

convened  League  of  Nations  as  they  were  aiming  to  arrive 
at  a  just  settlement  of  world-problems  was  precisely  at  this 
point  of  national  self-interest  and  an  unwillingness  to  com- 
prehend altruistically  the  needs  of  the  world  and  make  com- 
mon concession  to  meet  them.  In  carrying  out  from  year 
to  year  the  solemn  stipulations  of  the  League  this  will 
still  be  the  dominant  danger.  Toward  this  end,  however, 
where  national  and  international  loyalty  is  seen  not  to  con- 
flict every  people  should  aspire,  if  so  be  each  nation,  strong 
or  weak,  may  be  allowed  to  work  out  its  own  salvation  only 
in  obedience  to  the  common  interests  of  the  family  of 
nations  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Such  are  some  of  the  fundamental  issues  and  responsi- 
bilities that  emerge  from  the  late  war  and  which  in  their 
examination  and  adjustment  call  for  all  the  wisdom  that  can 
be  summoned.  Political  sanity,  mental  insight  and  equi- 
poise, a  high  degree  of  moral  sobriety  and  a  disinterested 
endeavor  to  reach  conclusions  contributing  to  the  good  of 
the  world  at  large  are  indispensable  requisites  to  anything 
like  a  satisfactory  solution.  The  world  from  centre  to 
circumference  is  awake  as  never  before.  All  classes  are 
moving  out  of  their  old  positions  to  higher  levels  of  thought 
and  action.  The  old  slogan  of  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity 
has  received  a  new  significance.  The  unification  of  nations 
for  the  common  weal  of  the  world  is  the  aspiring  ideal  and 
toward  that  ultimate  goal  it  is  the  duty  and  privilege  of 
every  people  to  press. 


Justifiable  Compromise  47 

JUSTIFIABLE  COMPROMISE 

In  the  course  of  history,  national  and  personal,  new  prob- 
lems are  ever  arising  for  examination  and  solution — so 
numerous  and  insistent  that  on  the  principle  that  "all  the 
world's  a  stage,"  what  the  dramatist  calls  "Problem  Plays" 
would  seem  to  constitute  the  dominant  form  of  human  pro- 
duction. These  problems  have  been  enormously  multiplied 
by  the  recent  world  struggle,  involving  the  sum  total  of  the 
world's  area,  and  affecting  every  local,  national,  interna- 
tional and  moral  province  open  to  human  function.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  to  approach,  discuss  and  determine  these 
varied  and  conflicting  issues  will  require  the  wisdom  of  the 
wisest. 

I.  The  Two-Fold  Interpretation  of  the  Term — Compro- 
mise. 
i.  There  is  a  form  of  compromise  that  is  based  on  a  sur- 
render of  vital  principle — the  unqualified  denial  of  the  rule 
of  right  and  the  valid  obligations  of  a  contract,  or  such  a 
confounding  of  conscience  as  to  violate  practically  every 
sanction  of  law — civil  or  moral.  In  order  to  reach  a 
decision  in  any  given  case,  principle  is  readily  subordinated 
to  policy.  This  is  nothing  less  than  a  wilful  concession  to 
interest  and  expediency,  a  practical  collusion  between  two 
equally  unprincipled  parties  to  secure  supposedly  desirable 
ends.  This  type  of  compromise  is  simply  outruled  by  any 
righteous  standard  of  personal  or  general  action,  though 
the  pages  of  history  are  replete  with  signal  illustrations  of 
its  presence.  A  candid  survey  of  many  of  the  great  Inter- 
national Treaties  among  the  modern  states  would  afford 


48  Timely  Topics 

startling  examples  of  this  iniquitous  form  of  political  con- 
cession. Doctor  Gibbons  in  his  "New  Map  of  Asia"  writes 
as  follows:  "The  record  of  European  Diplomacy  in  the 
Near  East  from  1815  to  1919  has  no  redeeming  feature. 
From  the  Congress  of  Vienna  to  the  Conference  at  Paris  it 
did  not  change.  Heartlessness  and  selfishness  were  its  char- 
acteristics." In  a  word,  policy  and  not  principle  has  been 
too  often  the  ruling  motive,  and  as  a  necessary  consequence 
the  results  reached  were  founded  on  the  method  of  a  com- 
promise that  did  not  hesitate  to  ignore  all  moral  considera- 
tions when  interest  demanded  it. 

2.  There  is,  however,  another  and  a  commendable  type 
of  compromise  that  we  now  have  in  mind  when  we  speak  of 
the  need  of  it  and  the  value  of  it  in  the  dealings  of  men  and 
nations  in  which  no  surrender  of  radical  principle  is  in- 
volved. It  is,  first  and  last,  a  necessary  mediating  agent 
between  extremes,  where  possible  and  actual  errors  exist  on 
both  sides  and  where  no  desirable  conclusion  can  be  reached 
save  by  mutual  concessions  in  the  sphere  of  the  secondary 
and  non-essential.  It  is  justified  by  human  liability  to  error 
and  will  invariably  result  in  correct  conclusions  where  there 
is  on  both  sides  an  ingenuous  desire  and  effort  to  agree  for 
the  common  good.  It  is  just  here  that  the  valid  method 
of  arbitration  is  marked  as  a  conciliatory  agency  between 
conflicting  interests,  the  primary  purpose  being  to  secure 
from  each  party  to  the  contract  enough  of  a  surrender  of 
subordinate  matters  to  make  a  right  solution  possible.  To 
make  this  just  and  tenable  discrimination  between  the  essen- 
tial and  non-essential  constitutes  the  main  responsibility  of 
any  agent  of  arbitration. 


Justifiable  Compromise  49 

II.  The  Sphere  of  Operation  of  this  valid  form  of  compro- 
mise is  unlimited. 

1.  In  the  province  of  the  Civic  or  Political  its  illustration 
is  abundant.  This  is  so  true  that  it  is  questionable  whether 
in  the  history  of  states  there  has  been  any  thoroughly  satis- 
factory Treaty  or  Civic  Contract  that  has  not  been  reached 
by  partial  and  justifiable  concession. 

Ex-President  Taft  in  a  recent  address  went  so  far  as  to 
say,  "The  Anglo-Saxon  idea  of  government  is  founded  on 
the  principle  of  compromise."  As  is  well-known,  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  finally  and  fully  formu- 
lated on  this  principle  of  wise  and  just  concession,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Hamilton  and  other  representative  statesmen  in- 
sisting on  such  a  justifiable  surrender  of  minor  conditions. 
Even  in  political  councils  where  some  of  the  conclusions 
reached  were  the  evident  outgrowth  of  the  sacrifice  of  car- 
dinal principles,  others  were  the  expression  of  righteous  con- 
cession. The  recent  International  Conference  at  Paris  is  a 
case  in  evidence,  where  policy  and  "even-handed  justice" 
alternately  prevailed. 

2.  In  the  sphere  of  Education  in  all  its  grades  this  resort 
to  some  legitimate  form  and  measure  of  concession  is  ap- 
parent. As  to  the  exact  relation  of  Higher  and  Secondary 
Education,  as  to  the  due  adjustment  in  Collegiate  centres 
of  Required  and  Elective  Studies,  as  to  the  just  relation  of 
Graduate  to  Undergraduate  courses,  of  the  Cultural  or 
Classical  and  the  Vocational,  of  Generalization  and  Speciali- 
zation, these  and  numbers  of  similar  questions  have  occa- 
sioned prolonged  discussion  and  a  satisfactory  result  has 
been  secured  only  by  common  concession. 


50  Timely  Topics 

3.  So  in  the  province  of  the  Industries,  where  the  capi- 
talist, the  laborer,  and  the  general  public  constitute  a  triple 
organization  for  the  discussion  and  settlement  of  pending 
problems  where  respective  interests  conflict.  In  this  prov- 
ince, some  exercise  of  the  principle  of  conciliation  is  essen- 
tial, as  the  history  of  any  nation's  industrial  order  will  show. 
The  hours  of  labor,  the  amount  of  wages,  the  possible  divi- 
sion of  profits,  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  parties  con- 
cerned, must  be  the  subject  of  co-operative  interest  and 
viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  common  justice.  Such  a  his- 
tory in  this  country  as  that  of  the  Tariff — partly  a  civic 
and  partly  an  industrial  question,  is  an  example  in  point — 
mutual  modifications  of  demands  as  to  Protection  and  Free 
Trade  being  inevitable.  In  fine,  it  may  be  said  that  social 
and  industrial  conditions  are  based  on  this  principle  of 
allowable  and  reasonable  assent  and  adjustment. 

4.  So  in  the  sphere  of  Theological  Controversy,  where 
the  letter  and  the  spirit  so  often  are  at  variance,  where  the 
doctrinal  and  the  experimental  conflict.  All  great  Religious 
Reformations  have  illustrated  this  class  of  conceptions, 
methods  and  aims  and  have  been  driven  perforce  to  legiti- 
mate yielding  of  preconceived  theories.  The  great  Historic 
Creeds  and  Confessions  of  Christendom,  such  as  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Westmin- 
ster Confession,  have  taken  their  final  form  after  prolonged 
discussion  as  to  where  and  to  what  degree  the  parties  to  the 
controversy  might  make  justifiable  concession  without  the 
surrender  of  fundamental  truth,  and  this  discussion  has 
never  been  more  pronounced  and  promising  than  it  is  now, 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  every  province  of  thought  and 


Justifiable  Compromise  51 

life — personal  or  general — there  is  a  place  and  an  urgent 
demand  for  an  order  of  compromise  that  is  essentially  just, 
and  one  that  has  proved  itself  necessary  in  the  course  of 
history.  Some  things  there  are  that  cannot  admit  of  com- 
promise, because  basic  principles  of  right  and  justice  forbid 
it.  The  Ten  Commandments  are  incapable  of  revision  or 
concession.  When  Luther  at  the  Diet  at  Worms  said,  'Teh 
kann  nicht  anders/'  he  was  stating  a  fundamental  truth 
which  could  not  be  modified  by  Pope  or  Council.  Lincoln, 
when  he  issued  his  Emancipation  Proclamation,  did  so  in 
terms  not  debatable.  When  General  Grant  demanded  un- 
conditional surrender,  he  meant  just  that,  no  more,  no  less. 
There  are  some  things  finally  formulated  and  are  beyond 
appeal  to  any  higher  court. 

Outside  of  this  sacred  enclosure,  however,  there  is  a  large 
area  of  possible  repeal  and  revision,  in  obedience  to  the 
conditions  as  they  arise  and  are  made  obligatory  for  the 
general  good. 

On  this  principle  of  legitimate  compromise  the  progress 
of  civilization  is  largely  based.  International  comity  and 
fraternity  are  thus  enhanced.  War  with  its  attendant  evils 
is  thus  largely  prevented,  and  all  forms  of  bigotry,  ecclesi- 
astical, civic  and  social,  made  impossible,  the  duty  of  wise 
and  safe  concession  being  at  times  as  binding  on  men  and 
nations  as  the  corresponding  duty  of  uncompromising  loy- 
alty to  truth  and  faith,  when  essential  interests  are  at  stake. 

There  is  a  valid  sense  in  which  present  day  tendencies  call 
for  this  general  principle  of  compromise  as  never  before. 
Upon  no  people  or  Council  will  the  settlement  of  such  prob- 
lems more  acutely  and  persistently  fall  than  on  that  League 


52  Timely  Topics 

of  Nations  as  now  constituted,  which  is  to  convene  from 
year  to  year  to  adjust  nothing  less  than  the  conflicting  con- 
ditions of  the  modern  world.  The  leading  question  ever 
confronting  that  League,  as  perplexing  problems  arise,  will 
be  whether  to  assume  in  any  given  case  the  uncompromising 
attitude  as  demanded  by  inflexible  principle  or  the  attitude 
of  safe  and  salutary  compromise  as  demanded  by  existing 
conditions. 

Herein  will  international  statesmanship  be  taxed  to  the 
limit,  and  a  new  order  be  instituted  in  the  mutual  relation 
of  states  and  people. 

This  is  the  high  vocation  to  which  this  Council  will  be 
called,  and  this,  indeed,  is  the  personal  decision  which  every 
man  must  make  as  life  progresses — when  to  ignore  every 
temptation  to  compromise  and  when  to  assume  the  attitude 
of  conciliation  and  concession.  By  these  decisions  will  the 
destinies  of  nations  and  of  individuals  be  ultimately  deter- 
mined. 

MARTIAL  QUALITIES  IN  CIVIC  LIFE 

The  immediate  and  remote  effects  of  the  late  war,  inten- 
sified by  the  fact  that  it  was  an  international  war,  cannot, 
at  present,  at  least,  be  at  all  correctly  estimated.  That  the 
effects  are  and  will  be  as  wide  and  general  as  the  war  itself 
is  beyond  question,  and  it  will  be  the  part  of  students  of 
history  and  government,  as  the  years  go  on,  to  study  and 
record  these  various  results  as  they  manifest  themselves,  and 
make  such  deductions  therefrom  as  seem  to  be  logical  and 
tenable. 

One  of  the  interesting  questions  thus  emerging  pertains 


Martial  Qualities  in  Civic  Life  53 

to  the  nature  and  influence  of  those  qualities  of  a  specifically 
martial  character  that  express  themselves  more  or  less  clearly 
and  efficiently  in  civic  life — in  the  every-day  activities  of 
the  civilian  world.  Whatever  may  be  the  objectionable 
features  of  a  military  regime  as  displayed  in  the  active 
conduct  of  war,  it  is  clear  that  from  such  a  radical  and 
strenuous  experience  there  must  be  some  qualities  so  com- 
mendable as  to  make  them  a  desirable  factor  in  periods  of 
peace.  It  is  on  this  ground  that  not  only  leaders  of  armies 
but  representative  leaders  in  the  state  insist  on  the  value 
of  universal  military  training  as  a  civic  measure  for  the 
nation's  best  interests;  contending  that  every  aspiring  people 
needs  an  infusion  of  the  martial  temper  and  a  schooling 
in  the  martial  virtues,  if  so  it  may  be  fully  equal  to  the 
serious  responsibilities  of  citizenship  and  be  enabled  to  take 
its  place  and  hold  its  place  in  the  family  of  nations.  Nor  is 
it  meant  that  thereby  a  nation  should  be  militaristic,  culti- 
vating a  war-like  spirit  for  the  sake  of  aggressive  action 
and  vauntingly  asserting  its  readiness  for  war,  but  simply 
that  it  must  cultivate  all  traits  of  national  character  that 
tend  to  enrich  and  strengthen  it  and  fit  it  fully  to  meet  and 
discharge  all  national  obligations  as  they  arise,  what  General 
Pershing  has  called  "a  trained  citizen  reserve,"  a  citizen 
reserve  as  distinct  from  a  specifically  soldier  reserve,  or  as 
it  might  be  called,  a  citizen  soldiery.  Whatever  may  have 
been  true  as  to  our  nation's  needs  decades  ago,  it  is  now 
true  that  as  a  world  power  world  conditions  must  be  met 
and  a  new  regime  instituted  utterly  uncalled  for  in  any 
earlier  era,  a  nation  organized  and  martially  trained  in  the 
interests  of  peace. 


54  Timely  Topics 

Some  of  these  martial  qualities  (studied)  may  be: 
i.  There  is,  first  of  all,  Physical  Vigor — a  symmetrical 
and  thorough  training  of  the  body  so  as  to  make  it  the 
efficient  instrument  of  the  mind,  imparting  endurance,  what 
the  Scriptures  call  "hardness,"  nervous  and  muscular  energy, 
suppleness  and  sinewy  strength,  elasticity  and  alertness  of 
movement,  ability  to  suffer  and  be  strong,  power  to  defend 
against  attack  and  to  institute  attack — in  a  word,  vitality, 
the  vis  vivida  of  the  old  pagan  warrior,  athletic  activity 
such  as  the  wrestler  displays  in  the  arena.  It  is  this  calis- 
thenic  and  gymnastic  ordeal  through  which  the  soldier  must 
go  that  has  a  place  in  the  ordinary  functions  of  life  by  virtue 
of  which  a  man  may  be  physically  fit  for  sacrifice  and 
service.  One  of  the  startling  disclosures  of  the  late  war 
was  the  lack  of  good  physical  condition  on  the  part  of  a 
very  large  percentage  of  the  young  men  who  were  examined 
for  the  army  and  navy.  Though  young  men  and  supposed 
to  be  possessed  of  the  virility  of  youth  large  numbers  of 
them  were  found  to  be  totally  or  partially  unfit  for  the 
rigorous  demands  of  the  service,  due  in  part,  perhaps,  to 
inherited  defects,  but  mainly  to  lamentable  carelessness  as  to 
the  care  of  the  body  and  observance  of  the  ordinary  laws  of 
health. 

2.  An  additional  benefit  directly  derivable  from  military 
life  and  training  is  that  of  Discipline,  with  all  which  that 
term  means  in  its  fullest  function,  including,  as  it  does,  self- 
control,  temperate  habit,  confidence  in  one's  self  and  a 
deep-seated  respect  for  law  and  order  and  rightly  constituted 
authority — the  obedient  and  responsive  spirit,  recognizing 
one's  place  as  a  subject  and  cordially  meeting  all  obligations 


Martial  Qualities  in  Civic  Life  55 

that  issue  from  such  a  relation.  It  need  scarcely  be  stated 
that  just  here  lies  one  of  the  most  damaging  and  unanswer- 
able indictments  against  the  youth  of  this  and  other  lands — 
while  many  careful  observers  of  the  life  of  different  peoples 
maintain  that  it  is  an  especially  American  defect  of  char- 
acter as  manifested  in  its  earliest  forms  in  the  American 
household — want  of  due  respect  for  parental  authority,  and, 
as  a  result,  for  any  authority,  local  or  national,  and  be- 
getting, if  unchecked,  all  those  varied  forms  of  unbridled 
socialism  and  radicalism  so  threatening  in  the  modern  world. 
Hence  the  need  of  the  strictly  martial  virtue  of  Discipline, 
inculcating  and  demanding  reverence  for  authority,  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  preferences  and  interests  to  the  gen- 
eral good,  a  distinctive  power  of  restraint  under  adverse 
conditions  and  an  immediate  and  unquestioned  response 
to  every  call  of  sacrifice  and  service.  Every  soldier  and 
sailor,  as  such,  is  under  orders,  and  every  civilian  is  in  a 
very  legitimate  sense  under  orders,  bound  when  necessary 
to  defer  his  own  judgment  to  that  of  others  and  subor- 
dinate his  own  will  to  those  who  are  his  rightful  superiors. 
Discipline  is  strictly  a  moral  quality  of  character  and  finds 
its  proper  place  among  the  cardinal  virtues. 

3.  Closely  connected  with  this  characteristic  of  the  soldier 
is  that  of  Loyalty,  which  in  its  very  etymology  means  obedi- 
ence to  law,  including  all  that  is  meant  by  devotion  to  the 
flag,  by  what  we  term  patriotism,  an  absolute  surrender  of 
person,  property,  time  and  energy  to  the  country's  good,  a 
free-will  contribution  of  one's  self  to  the  common  cause, 
the  nation's  preservation  and  progress,  so  that  when  the 
soldier  leaves  the  camp  and  returns  to  the  duties  of  citizen 


56  Timely  Topics 

life,  this  special  quality  is  supposed  to  express  itself  in  a 
patriotic  devotion  to  civic  interests  as  intense  and  unselfish 
as  when  displayed  in  the  trenches  or  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Patriotism  is  more  than  a  national  sentiment  thoroughly 
evoked  only  in  the  stress  of  war.  It  is  a  fundamental  factor 
in  days  of  peace  and  makes  the  highest  national  interest  a 
part  of  its  individual  concern. 

4.  A  further  martial  contribution  to  civic  life  is  seen  in 
what  may  be  termed  Catholicity — an  elimination  of  all 
artificial  distinctions  of  clan  and  creed  by  which  men  are 
rated  for  what  they  are  as  men,  quite  irrespective  of  their 
mental  or  social  antecedents — placed  on  a  common  level, 
organized  for  a  common  purpose,  trained  along  common 
lines  and  viewed  simply  as  a  unified  body  in  the  service  of 
the  state.  In  the  late  World-War  this  characteristic  was  so 
enlarged  in  its  scope  that  not  only  personal  and  national  but 
international  and  even  racial  differences  were  ignored  and 
men  were  aggregated  under  a  common  standard  in  defense 
of  human  interests.  Never  has  there  been  such  an  efface- 
ment  of  distinctive  features  of  color  or  language  or  custom 
or  locality.  In  this  respect  and  to  this  extent  the  military 
regime  is  a  school  of  life — a  real  Common  Council  of  men 
for  the  settlement  of  common  interests,  and  when  this 
feature  properly  manifests  itself  in  times  of  peace  all  arti- 
ficial barriers  are  broken  down  and  men  meet  as  men  on 
common  ground. 

5.  There  is  a  further  desirable  feature  of  martial  life  due 
primarily  to  the  fact  that  a  nation's  soldiery  is  made  up 
necessarily  of  young  men.  We  may  call  it  Initiative — the 
ability  and  innate  tendency  to  take  the  path  of  adventure, 


Martial  Qualities  in  Civic  Life  57 

with  all  its  risks  and  dangers  and  inspiring  possibilities.  It 
is  just  because  it  is  hazardous  that  it  is  attractive,  and  the 
line  of  least  resistance  is  ignored  because  it  fails  to  afford 
sufficient  scope  for  the  exercise  of  that  "sublime  audacity 
of  youth''  which  is  as  fascinating  as  it  is  perilous.  It  is 
because  young  men  as  young  are  "buoyant,  confident  and 
strong  in  hope"  that  nothing  seems  too  formidable,  nothing 
too  venturesome.  In  the  actual  engagements  of  the  battle- 
field instances  abound  when  not  only  individual  soldiers 
have  taken  the  initiative  and  done  deeds  of  daring  that 
immortalized  them,  but  when  an  army  in  its  totality  has 
assumed  the  offensive  under  the  most  desperate  conditions 
and  in  their  own  way  and  by  extraordinary  methods  wrested 
an  unwonted  victory  from  the  enemy.  It  is  simply  the 
irresistible  spirit  of  youth,  intensified  and  incited  by  the 
environment  of  war  and  made  equal  to  any  emergency,  and 
when  this  bold  abandon  expresses  itself  in  days  of  peace  we 
are  made  to  see  its  vitalizing  influence  on  national  character. 
If  at  the  close  of  a  war  such  as  that  now  ended  this  initia- 
tive energy  would  express  itself  only  along  right  lines,. there 
would  ensue  such  a  reformation  of  the  world's  life  as  has 
never  before  been  seen — a  real  regeneration  of  the  race. 

If  then  these  are  the  qualities  which  may  be  transferred 
from  the  field  of  battle  to  the  activities  of  peace,  we  can  see 
at  once  what  the  opportunity  is  and  what  the  responsibility 
is  of  a  returning  soldiery  to  civic  status — nothing  less  than 
that  of  reconstructing  and  vitalizing  a  nation's  life,  a  respon- 
sibility which  if  ignored  or  misdirected  may  work  irrep- 
arable ruin  to  a  state.  This  is  the  high  vocation  to  which 
a  people's  defenders  are  called  at  home — to  seal  and  sanctify 


58  Timely  Topics 

the  science  of  warfare  by  a  conscientious  cultivation  of  the 
arts  of  peace. 

THE  VALUE  OF  MELIORISM 

One  of  the  evidences  of  the  aptness  of  most  men  to  hold 
extreme  positions  on  any  given  subject  with  which  they 
have  to  do  is  seen  in  the  attitude  so  readily  assumed  of 
optimism  or  pessimism,  those  assuming  it  passing  back  and 
forth  by  quick  and  often  violent  transition,  quite  unable  or 
unwilling  to  rest  content  midway  between  the  opposite  poles 
of  thought  and  action  long  enough  to  comprehend  the  exist- 
ing conditions  and  make  a  rational  decision  as  to  what  is 
best.  Such  extremes  are  equally  untrue  to  facts  and  equally 
fraught  with  danger  to  those  maintaining  them,  over- 
confidence  and  lack  of  confidence  working  naught  but  harm. 
As  the  late  war  went  on  from  year  to  year,  these  extremes 
were  exemplified  and  emphasized  on  both  sides  of  the  tragic 
conflict,  while  there  were  some,  at  least,  who  entertained  a 
saner  and  a  safer  view  and  insisted  on  a  principle  of  media- 
tion, discarding  the  maxim — everything  for  the  best  or 
everything  for  the  worst — contending  for  the  theory  that 
ominous  as  the  conditions  may  be  all  things  are  for  the 
better,  working  slowly  but  inevitably  toward  the  possible 
best — the  theory  of  Meliorism.  Though  they  cannot  hold 
with  Browning  that  "All's  right  with  the  world,"  they  can 
still  less  hold  with  the  dismal  philosophy  of  Schopenhauer 
and  his  school,  that  All's  wrong  with  the  world.  Through 
the  cloud  they  always  discern  the  silver  lining,  and  when  all 
others  have  lost  hope  and  faith  persist  in  believing  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  truth  and  right. 


The  Value  of  Meliorism  59 

Hence,  the  duty  of  Meliorism.  Despite  all  adverse  con- 
ditions, all  disappointments  and  reverses,  there  is  the 
dominant  obligation  to  harbor  the  thought  that  there  must 
be  and  will  be  a  better  day,  at  the  dawning  of  which  present 
faith  may  be  fully  justified.  The  old  biblical  exhortation 
must  be  heard  and  heeded — "Be  of  good  cheer."  The  dark 
ages  of  earlier  centuries,  however,  in  keeping  with  the 
history  of  the  time,  must  be  made  to  give  place  to  a  brighter 
and  better  order — an  age  of  progress  and  promise.  Especi- 
ally in  an  age  such  as  this,  resulting  from  war  conditions, 
when  all  the  graces  of  character  have  been  tested  to  the 
limit  and  men  are  seeking,  as  never  before,  to  find  some 
things  that  are  stable,  some  basis  of  faith  and  hope  on  which 
to  stand,  this  commanding  injunction  is  to  be  accepted  as 
finally  operative  and  men  are  to  reinforce  themselves  against 
all  fear  and  doubt  and  express  the  melioristic  temper  as 
never  before.  This  is  a  type  of  heroism  as  signal  in  its 
way  as  that  displayed  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Such  a  principle  of  life  and  state  of  mind  is  so  thoroughly 
enjoined  by  biblical  authority  that  it  cannot  be  ignored, 
it  being  true  beyond  question  that  a  genuine  and  well- 
grounded  meliorism  rests  after  all  on  religious  foundations. 
"Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,"  "Rejoice  evermore"  is  the 
scriptural  order.  If  Browning,  as  an  optimist,  was  able  to 
say  that  "All's  right  with  the  world"  it  was  because,  as  he 
argues,  "God's  in  his  heaven."  The  melioristic  mind  is  not 
fatalistic  but  is  distinctly  theistic,  based  upon  faith  in  a 
divine  government  of  the  world. 

Hence,  the  desirability  of  this  principle. 

1.  It  leads  directly  to  personal  Courage.     No  man,  how- 


60  Timely  Topics 

ever  gifted  with  a  will-power  and  personal  initiative  can 
face  the  facts  of  life  as  they  confront  him  with  any  degree 
of  confidence  in  the  outcome,  save  as  he  is  fortified  by  the 
thought  that  despite  all  reverses  and  apparent  defeat  the 
ultimate  issue  will  be  possible.  In  all  misgivings  there  is  an 
unbroken  element  of  faith  and  hope  which  impels  him  ever 
forward.  There  is  a  military  factor  in  this  virtue,  so 
that  all  opposition  is  bravely  met,  and  the  moral  warrior 
moves  out  of  the  trenches  at  the  zero  hour  and  passes  over 
the  top  to  moral  victory. 

2.  Herein  lies,  also,  the  secret  of  personal  Happiness, 
quickened  as  it  is  by  the  dominant  thought  of  the  world's 
betterment.  Such  a  temperament  insists  on  discovering  and 
emphasizing  the  better  side  of  human  nature,  relegating  the 
forbidding  features  to  the  background  and  finds  increasing 
satisfaction  therein  as  the  better  element  records  its  frequent 
triumph  over  the  baser.  Such  natures  are  possessed  of  what 
the  Scriptures  call  "the  merry  heart  that  doeth  good  like  a 
medicine,"  infusing  a  real  mental  and  moral  tonic  by  which 
the  recipient  of  it  is  heartened.  They  are  happy  in  the 
thought  that  the  world,  bad  as  it  is,  might  be  far  worse,  that 
while  here  and  there  there  are  signs  of  retrogression,  the 
world,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  moving  steadily  forward  toward 
the  inspiring  ideal  of  betterment. 

3.  Personal  Usefulness  is  absolutely  dependent  on  this 
hopeful  state  of  mind,  by  which  the  spirit  is  quickened  and 
invigorated  and  finds  itself  ready  and  able  to  meet  emer- 
gencies which  otherwise  would  be  formidable.  Despond- 
ency in  any  of  its  stages  cuts  the  nerve  of  all  effort  and 
arouses  all  forms  of  opposition.    At  no  stage  in  the  world's 


The  Value  of  Meliorism  61 

history  and  least  of  all  under  present  conditions,  is  there 
any  place  for  the  pessimist  or  the  doubter,  who  would 
dissipate  all  energy  and  hope  and  throw  the  soul  back  on 
the  creed  of  the  fatalist.  The  tests  of  life  are  too  tense  and 
the  struggle  under  favorable  conditions  quite  too  severe  to 
allow  any  place  whatever  for  the  misanthrope. 

It  is  only  to  the  meliorist  that  the  world  instinctively  turns 
in  its  time  of  need  for  words  and  deeds  of  good  cheer.  It  is 
what  we  believe  and  not  what  we  question  that  counts  for 
stimulus.  It  is  by  hope  that  we  are  saved  and  not  by  fear 
or  dismay,  and  any  such  thing  as  usefulness  among  our 
fellows  is  unattainable  save  as  we  insist  upon  emphasizing 
the  primary  features  of  life.  Courage,  happiness  and  use- 
fulness are  the  natural  fruits  of  meliorism,  so  that  such  a 
temper  is  as  desirable  as  it  is  obligatory  and  places  the  world 
in  lasting  indebtedness  to  him  who  possesses  and  exem- 
plifies it. 

In  the  application  of  this  principle  either  to  individual  or 
national  life  it  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  expresses 
a  tendency  or  drift  rather  than  a  final  and  completed  con- 
dition fully  satisfactory  in  its  influence.  It  need  not  and 
does  not  guarantee  absolute  betterment  at  once  or  in  the 
near  future  or  at  any  assignable  period  of  personal  or 
national  history,  but  only  the  promise  that  as  the  years  go 
on  conditions  reveal  improvement,  progress  in  right  direc- 
tions is  sufficiently  evident  to  quicken  energy  and  inspire  the 
soul  to  new  endeavor.  It  is  precisely  in  this  modified  but 
steadily  increasing  betterment  that  meliorism  finds  its  oppor- 
tunity as  contrasted  with  that  unduly  ample  measure  of 
satisfaction  for  which  the  optimist  is  looking.     In  view  of 


62  Timely  Topics 

the  disciplinary  element  in  human  experience  and  the  life 
of  the  world  and  the  obstinate  obstructions  that  lie  in  the 
path  of  every  onward  movement  it  is  far  wiser  and  safer 
to  rest  content  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  success  than  to 
aim  at  an  impossible  result  and  suffer  acute  disappointment 
in  not  being  able  to  realize  it.  It  is  enough  to  regard  all 
earnest  endeavor  if  only  comparative  progress  is  made,  even 
though  life  itself  may  close  far  this  side  of  fullest  fruition. 
It  is  the  old  motto  of  the  Swiss  mountaineer  as  he  ascends 
step  by  step  under  the  inspiration  of  Excelsior,  even  though 
the  summit  may  never  be  attained. 

In  fine,  life  will  be  to  every  man  very  much  what  he  is 
pleased  to  make  of  it  and  will  depend  largely  in  its  issues 
upon  the  view  that  he  takes  of  it.  Accepting  the  cardinal 
doctrine  of  a  moral  order  in  the  universe,  the  ultimate 
success  for  better  or  for  worse  will  be  determined  by  him- 
self. For  his  personal  well  being  and  for  his  satisfaction 
in  observing  the  ongoings  of  the  world  about  him,  it  will  be 
well  for  him  if  he  is  able,  despite  all  impediments,  to  assume 
the  hopeful  attitude  and  insist  that,  after  all,  events  are  so 
shaping  that  the  course  of  the  world  is  ever  onward  and 
that,  whatever  the  present  conditions  may  be,  better  con- 
ditions lie  just  ahead  and  are  full  of  promise  to  him  who 
apprehends  and  utilizes  them. 

If  then  it  be  asked  on  what  basis  Meliorism  is  founded, 
the  sufficient  answer  is,  faith  in  God  and  faith  in  man,  an 
abiding  conviction  that  the  world  in  all  its  developments  is 
under  the  gracious  guidance  of  God  and  that  in  human 
nature  there  is  a  substantive  element  of  goodness  and  good 
will  on  which  to  rely.    On  these  divine  and  human  founda- 


The  Mission  of  the  Middle  Classes  63 

tions  it  is  as  reasonable  as  it  is  encouraging  to  insist  that 
despite  all  the  fluctuations  and  revolutions  of  the  world  a 
better  order  will  ultimately  emerge,  however  long  deferred, 
and  the  kingdom  of  truth  and  righteousness  will  finally  and 
fully  prevail. 

More  and  more  clearly  is  it  seen  to  be  true  that  upon 
every  one  there  rests  the  moral  obligation  to  make  the  world 
better  and  brighter,  to  diffuse  the  spirit  of  faith  and  hope 
and  good  cheer  wherever  one  may  exert  his  personal  influ- 
ence, to  come  to  the  rescue  of  every  despondent  spirit  with 
sympathy  and  practical  aid.  The  expression  of  such  a 
melioristic  temper  should  be  viewed  as  a  vocation  to  which 
every  man  is  solemnly  summoned,  if  so  be  he  may  do  some- 
thing to  make  his  life  a  benediction  to  himself  and  to  the 
world.  Viewed  from  any  standpoint  whatever  life  is  a 
struggle  and  a  discipline,  more  or  less  severe  and  strenuous 
and  persistent,  and  no  more  imperative  duty  and  privilege 
rests  upon  any  man  than  to  take  his  place  and  do  his  part  in 
the  gracious  work  of  meliorating  the  lives  of  his  fellowmen. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES 

The  different  divisions  and  subdivisions  under  which  men 
may  be  classified  may  be  said  to  be  as  varied  as  are  the 
points  of  view  that  may  be  assumed  or  the  principle  of 
classification  that  may  be  adopted.  Accepting  a  three-fold 
division  as  the  most  widely  current  and  the  most  conven- 
ient there  may  be  such  classifications  as — The  Learned  or 
Scholarly,  The  Intelligent  or  Enlightened  and  The  Ignorant 
or  Illiterate;  The  Wealthy,  The  Competent  or  Well-to-do 


64  Timely  Topics 

and  The  Needy;  the  Leisure  Class,  The  Industrial  or  Busi- 
ness Class  and  The  Laboring  Class, — in  a  word,  The  Upper, 
Middle  and  Lower  Classes,  the  line  of  exact  difference  be- 
tween any  two  of  them  being  necessarily  difficult  to  deter- 
mine. 

Professor  Abbott  in  his  interesting  work — "The  Expan- 
sion of  Europe" — writes :  "However  much  great  move- 
ments like  the  Reformation  had  owed  to  the  patronage  of 
those  in  authority,  the  secularized  middle  class  had  been  the 
prime  movers  in  economic  and  cultural  activities.  In  con- 
sequence, the  history  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  concerns 
itself  not  only  with  the  ambitions  of  rulers,  but  with  the 
achievements  of  commoners  who  revolutionize  the  world 
of  thought  and  action."  So,  in  the  present  century  and  the 
crisis  of  to-day,  as  we  note  the  rise  of  what  is  called  "The 
Middle  Class  Movement"  or  "The  Common  Peoples  Move- 
ment," assuming  organization,  as  we  are  told,  "in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,"  since  its  first  formal  opening  in  Eng- 
land in  April,  1919,  "formed,"  as  has  been  said,  "to  obtain 
protection  for  those  members  of  the  community  who  could 
in  no  other  way  protect  their  domestic  and  political  in- 
terests." They  are  the  people  with  the  "Middle  Interests," 
the  trading,  professional  and  administrative  classes  and 
those  whose  income  is  derived  from  limited  salaries  and  in- 
vestments and  savings  as  distinct  from  the  capitalist  and  the 
laborer  of  the  day. 

By  the  Middle  Classes,  we  also  mean  the  plain  people  so- 
called,  as  distinct  from  those  of  royal,  aristocratic  or  special 
social  status.  They  constitute  the  body  politic,  the  yeo- 
manry of  the  land,  the  great  commonalty  or  general  public, 


The  Mission  of  the  Middle  Classes  65 

the  rank  and  file  of  the  people  as  such,  the  order  of  citizens 
midway  between  the  higher  and  the  lower  levels,  excluding 
thereby,  on  the  one  hand,  the  privileged  class  and  on  the 
other  the  humbler  elements  of  society — the  common  people 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  the  genuine  plebeians  of  the 
day,  equally  distinct  from  the  patricians  and  the  proletariat 
— the  average  people  of  their  time. 

If  we  inquire  as  to  their  special  missions  as  thus  de- 
scribed some  suggestions  of  interest  may  be  made. 

1.  Their  very  Number  gives  them  a  status  and  an  influ- 
ence that  can  scarcely  be  overestimated,  far  exceeding  that 
of  the  upper  orders,  which  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case 
are  exclusive  and  in  the  minority,  and  by  reason  of  their 
position  wielding  a  power  altogether  foreign  and  superior 
to  the  menial  and  lowest  sections  of  the  people.  Just  be- 
cause they  occupy  the  intermediate  ground  they  are  in  the 
best  position  in  which  to  act  as  a  balancing  factor  in  all 
extreme  and  abnormal  tendencies.  Moreover,  their  char- 
acter is  such  as  to  make  them  immensely  potent  in  all  that 
pertains  to  the  well-being  of  a  state.  It  is  the  common 
people  who  possess  by  way  of  distinction  the  common  every- 
day virtues,  the  ordinary  homely  and  practical  elements  of 
character  and  conduct,  as  distinct  from  those  special  quali- 
ties that  belong  to  the  privileged  orders.  Common  sense  is 
one  of  their  prime  possessions — the  elemental  qualities  that 
underlie  and  condition  all  true  progress.  Mr.  Bryce,  in  his 
"American  Commonwealth"  dwells  at  length  on  Public 
Opinion  in  its  nature,  its  jurisdiction,  the  organs  through 
which  it  expresses  itself,  how  it  is  moulded,  its  local  and 


66  Timely  Topics 

geographical  types,  his  object  being  to  show  what  an 
immense  influence  it  holds,  especially  in  a  country  such  as 
ours  and  how  it  may  best  be  manifested,  directed  and 
guarded.  It  is  this  Public  Opinion  that  is  the  outspoken 
utterance  of  the  middle  classes,  so  pronounced  and  insistent 
that  it  cannot  be  suppressed  by  any  device  of  statecraft.  If 
for  a  time  silenced,  it  will  at  length  give  voice  to  its  senti- 
ments in  terms  so  unmistakable  as  to  defy  all  counter  diplo- 
macy, and  at  times  under  pressure  passing  all  conventional 
restrictions  will  become  what  Mr.  Bryce  calls  ''Fatalism  of 
the  Multitude."  It  is  because  it  is  the  view  of  the  com- 
monalty that  it  must  be  kept  with  bounds,  if  so  be  it  is  to  be 
of  lasting  benefit  to  the  state. 

2.  Hence  it  is,  that  it  is  best  expressed  in  countries  where 
Free  Institutions  exist — "In  no  country"  says  Bryce,  "is 
it  so  powerful  as  in  the  United  States,  in  no  country  can  it 
be  so  well  studied,"  while  in  such  countries  as  England 
and  some  of  the  continental  nations  it  finds  illustration  just 
to  the  degree  in  which  the  people  may  be  said  to  rule.  It  is 
the  medium  through  which  the  democratic  instincts  and 
ideals  of  men  are  voiced,  the  spontaneous  utterance  of  what 
the  people  think,  desire  and  demand,  however  opposed  it 
may  be  to  the  plans  and  purposes  of  kings  and  potentates. 
It  is  the  plain  people,  after  all,  who  hold  the  balance  of 
power  and  will  ultimately  exert  it  at  their  pleasure,  let  the 
autocrats  do  what  they  may.  More  the  spontaneous  expres- 
sion of  general  sentiment  than  the  result  of  reflection  and 
argument,  it  cannot  always  be  referred  to  any  definite 
origin  and  must  be  accepted  as  the  people's  way  of  indi- 
cating their  minds.     It  is  in  this  connection  that  Mr.  Bryce 


The  Mission  of  the  Middle  Classes  67 

makes  the  significant  assertion  that  "nearly  all  great  polit- 
ical and  social  causes  have  made  their  way  first  among  the 
middle  classes,"  guided,  we  may  add,  by  such  democratic 
leaders  as  John  Bright  and  Lincoln — the  great  commoners 
of  their  respective  peoples.  "Governments,"  he  adds,  "have 
always  rested  on  the  silent  acquiescence  of  the  majority," 
even  despotism  and  monarchy  being  no  exception. 

So  it  is  in  every  democratic  age  and  nation,  when  in  the 
open  forum  of  the  people  and  by  the  increasing  influence 
of  the  popular  press,  the  sentiments  of  the  general  public 
are  widely  circulated  and  mould  the  popular  will.  Journal- 
ism in  free  states  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  organ 
by  which  public  opinion  records  its  views  and  by  which  the 
common  people  receive  and  impart  a  common-school  educa- 
tion. 

3.  The  middle  classes  constitute  the  chief  Support  of 
States,  the  main  basis  on  which  they  stand  and  on  them  the 
main  reliance  is  placed  in  times  of  stress.  When  we  are  told 
"that  the  excellence  of  popular  government  lies  not  so  much 
in  its  wisdom  as  in  its  strength"  it  is  meant  that  recourse  is 
had  in  the  main  to  the  great  body  of  the  common  folk — 
that  part  of  the  government  which  after  all  does  the  work 
of  the  world,  the  great  professional,  commercial  and  busi- 
ness class,  the  industrial  order  of  any  state  or  nation.  It 
is  to  the  hard-headed,  clear-headed,  level-headed  men  that 
a  country  turns  when  practical  aid  is  needed  either  in  the 
form  of  defensive  or  aggressive  measures.  The  common 
sense  of  the  common  people  is  trustworthy — a  species  of 
practical  wisdom  possessed  only  by  the  graduates  of  the 
great  public  school  of  the  world.     What  the  historian  Lord 


68  Timely  Topics 

has  called  "The  Beacon  Lights  of  History,"  what  Carlyle 
calls  the  "Heroes  of  History,"  and  what  the  American 
critic  Whipple  describes  as  "Representative  Men,"  have  their 
place  that  cannot  be  filled  by  members  of  any  other  class, 
but  with  all  their  gifts  and  ability,  can  never  fill  the  place  or 
do  the  invaluable  work  of  the  so-called  middle  classes. 

Mr.  Emerson  has  written  on  "The  Uses  of  Great  Men." 
So  he  might  have  written  with  equal  emphasis  on  The  Uses 
of  Ordinary  Men — who  constitute  what  might  be  called 
The  House  of  Commons  in  the  Parliament  of  the  world — 
upon  whom,  after  all,  a  well-ordered  government  is  mainly 
founded.  * 

In  the  world  conflict  that  has  recently  closed  whatever 
may  have  been  due  to  the  leaders  of  armies  and  navies,  to 
generals  and  admirals,  the  brunt  of  the  battle  by  land  and 
by  sea  was  borne  by  the  rank  and  file  of  the  common  sol- 
diers and  sailors,  to  whom  the  nations  instinctively  turned 
in  the  hour  of  their  deepest  need.  Such  is  the  sphere  of 
service  which  the  great  body  of  the  common  people  may  be 
said  to  occupy  as  they  stand  midway  between  the  upper  and 
lower  levels  of  their  time,  it  being  their  significant  function 
to  mediate  between  extremes  and  hold  the  course  of  events 
in  a  steady  equilibrium,  proof  alike  against  the  exclusive 
authority  of  the  favored  few  and  the  erratic  tendencies  of 
the  lowest  orders  of  society. 

It  is  here  that  Mr.  Bryce  utters  a  word  of  caution,  in  what 
he  calls  "The  Tyranny  of  The  Majority,"  by  which  the 
rights  of  the  Minority  are  either  ignored  or  resisted.  This 
is  a  possible  result  arising  from  that  consciousness  of  power 
that  is  possessed  by  the  Commonalty,  by  the  very  fact  of 


The  Mission  of  the  Middle  Classes  69 

their  numerical  strength.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  the 
people  as  such  may  so  abuse  the  prerogative,  what  is  theirs 
by  right  of  mere  majority,  that  a  form  of  despotism  may 
ensue,  fully  as  injurious  as  any  type  of  autocratic  rule,  so 
that  the  very  ends  of  free  government  may  be  frustrated 
under  the  guise  of  popular  privilege.  This  temptation  to 
the  abuse  of  power  is  so  potent  that  civil  governments  the 
world  over,  and  most  especially  in  democracies,  have  been 
obliged  on  grounds  of  self-defense  to  institute  a  system  of 
checks  and  balances  by  which  such  forms  of  unjust  legisla- 
tion may  be  nullified  or  impaired  so  as  to  conserve  the 
interests  of  good  government.  It  is  by  reason  of  this  ten- 
dency of  what  might  be  called  popular  despotism  that  critics 
of  democracy,  such  as  De  Tocqueville,  have  seemed  to 
find  the  source  of  weakness  in  free  states  and  indulged  in 
dire  predictions  as  to  their  possible  permanence.  One  of  the 
evident  results  of  the  late  war  lies  directly  along  the  line  of 
this  dangerous  tendency,  when  the  masses  are  coming  more 
and  more  into  the  consciousness  of  their  inherent  strength 
under  the  guise  of  some  kind  of  socialistic  betterment  and 
are  openly  declaring  their  independence  and  trespassing 
farther  and  farther  beyond  the  line  of  loyalty  and  civic 
order.  Herein  lie  alike  the  peril  and  the  promise  of  this 
growing  influence  of  the  Commonalty  in  the  modern  world, 
to  check  it  where  it  is  excessive  and  domineering,  and  to 
encourage  it  when  sane  and  safe. 

One  of  the  greatest  perils  is  found  in  the  readiness  with 
which  the  intelligent  middle  classes  of  the  community  are 
inclined  to  fraternize  far  too  freely  with  the  lowermost 
levels  of  the  people — the  riotous  rabble  of  the  streets.     No 


yo  Timely  Topics 

greater  responsbility  rests  upon  the  middle  classes  of  today 
than  to  be  true  to  their  proper  place  and  function  in  the 
modern  world  as  the  great  stabilizing  element  in  civic  and 
social  order,  bringing  to  bear  all  their  intelligence  and 
sanity  and  sobriety  of  judgment,  to  hold  a  governing  hand 
over  all  tendencies  to  lawlessness  and  so  justify  their  right 
to  be  the  great  mediating  agent  in  the  extreme  theories  and 
movements  of  the  time. 

We  are  living  in  the  Golden  Age  of  the  average  man  and 
it  is  to  him  that  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  turned,  as  never 
before,  for  "light  and  leading"  if  so  be  that  the  best  national 
and  international  interests  may  be  maintained  and  the  world 
at  large  come  at  length  under  a  benign  and  beneficent  de- 
mocracy— a  great  Democratic  Commonwealth  administered 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people's  good. 

To  this  far  distant  but  possible  ideal  not  a  few  of  the 
world's  wisest  minds  are  looking,  when  all  classes  will  dis- 
appear and  be  merged  in  a  universal  order,  when  "children 
of  privilege  and  children  of  toil  will  be  united;  thinkers 
and  laborers  finding  a  deep  union  in  a  common  experience 
and  common  desire,  underlying  all  intellectual  and  social 
differences."  To  effect  such  a  unification  may  be  the  dis- 
tinctive mission  of  the  Middle  Classes. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  LIBERALISM 

One  of  the  most  distinctive  movements  now  arresting 
the  attention  of  every  observant  mind  is  that  of  liberalizing 
the  thought  of  the  world — a  real  enfranchisement  of  the 
human  mind,  far  more  wide-reaching  and  potent  than  that 


The  Growth  of  Liberalism  yi 

legacy  of  freedom  which  was  given  to  Europe  and  the  mod- 
ern world  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  Great  Charter  un- 
precedented in  scope  and  spirit  and  which,  if  rightly  utilized 
and  guarded  will  be  an  invaluable  contribution  toward  the 
general  good  of  the  race.  Nor  is  this  beneficent  result 
merely  one  of  those  regular  and  natural  expressions  of 
what  we  call  the  history  of  peoples,  presumably  marking  an 
advance  from  age  to  age,  but  a  specific  providential  move- 
ment, as  issuing  from  that  dramatic  catastrophe  which  for 
the  past  four  years  has  tested  well  nigh  to  the  limit  the 
resources  and  the  faith  of  Christendom.  It  illustrates  what 
the  late  Doctor  McCosh  called,  The  Method  of  the  Divine 
Government,  confirming  the  view  that  above  the  rule  of 
Kings  and  of  all  human  agencies  there  is  a  superhuman 
mind  and  hand  controlling  the  course  of  events.  If  we 
inquire  as  to  the  scope  or  province  of  this  liberalizing  prin- 
ciple we  find  it  all-embracing  and  universal  in  its  applica- 
tion, affecting  every  human  institution  and  every  form  and 
function  of  human  effort  and  so  intense,  insistent  and 
potent  that  nothing  cansuccessfully  or  safely  resist  it. 

i.  In  Government  it  takes  the  form  of  democratizing 
every  existing  political  system,  breaking  down  all  despotic 
and  restrictive  barriers  and  opening  widely  the  way  to  civic 
freedom.  There  is  not  a  government  now  existing  that  is 
not  the  subject  of  this  irresistible  influence,  whereby  autoc- 
racies and  monarchies  are  overturned  and  the  rule  of  the 
people  as  such  instituted,  so  that  the  world  is  becoming  one 
great  commonwealth  and  the  League  of  Nations  is  a  league 
of  liberty,  a  covenant  of  independence  and  inter-dependence 
in  unified  activity. 


72  Titnely  Topics 

2.  So,  in  the  Social  and  Industrial  sphere,  where  the 
classes  and  the  masses,  capital  and  labor  clash  and  contend 
for  supremacy,  and  where  the  higher  principle  of  community 
of  interest  is  coming  into  prominence.  The  governing  tend- 
ency now  evident  is  to  minimize  the  distance  and  the  differ- 
ences between  the  so-called  "privileged  classes"  and  the 
great  social  and  industrial  commonalty,  insisting  upon  an 
open  door  to  all,  a  genuine  and  well  ordered  socialism,  by 
which  the  old  time  declaration  "that  all  men  are  free  and 
equal"  in  point  of  opportunity  shall  be  confirmed  in  fact 
and  a  real  aristocracy  arise — the  rule  of  the  best,  from  what- 
ever order  the  best  may  come. 

3.  So,  in  the  province  of  Education,  there  being  no  sphere 
in  which  this  new  awakening  is  more  pronounced.  Every 
educational  centre  in  the  land  may  be  said  to  be  fairly  aflame 
with  interest  as  to  what  this  new  order  demands  in  the  way 
of  extension  and  increased  efficiency.  These  centres  of 
knowledge  and  mental  discipline,  though  already  known  as 
seats  of  liberal  learning,  are  thoroughly  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  a  new  and  broader  interpretation  of  the  term 
liberal  must  be  made,  if  they  are  to  fall  in  line  with  the 
issues  of  the  hour.  Science  itself  and  all  technical  and  pro- 
fessional studies  must  be  to  some  extent  based  on  the  liberal 
arts.  They  are  to  be  liberal  not  only  in  the  sense  of  repre- 
senting classical  culture  but  it  is  insisted  that  they  widen 
the  area  of  study  and  training  so  as  to  give  a  larger  place 
to  those  branches  that  lie  outside  of  the  strictly  classical 
regime  as  hitherto  obtaining  and  serve  to  prepare  the 
student  for  a  more  active  participation  in  the  imperative 
demands  of  that  new  world  that  is  now  opening.     These 


The  Growth  of  Liberalism  73 

homes  of  the  higher  learning,  so-called,  are  to  be  univer- 
sities in  a  much  more  comprehensive  sense  than  that  which 
has  been  handed  down  from  the  days  of  the  schoolmen 
and  are  to  adapt  more  and  more  closely  the  old  order  of 
study  to  the  wider  economy  of  the  times.  The  Humanities 
as  embodied  in  collegiate  courses  are  to  be  far  more  human 
than  ever,  an  order  of  discipline  outside  the  limits  of  the 
ancient  languages  and  pagan  art  and  embracing  all  those 
forms  of  intellectual  training  which  best  prepare  the  modern 
man  for  the  modern  world.  Herein  we  find  a  later  and 
wider  educational  Renaissance — the  establishment  of  a  great 
public  school  of  the  new  era — the  free  academy  of  the 
world. 

4.  So,  in  the  Christian  Church,  an  institution  that  offers 
no  exception  to  the  liberalizing  process.  Indeed  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  the  church  must  represent  this  process  of 
enfranchisement  more  distinctively  than  any  other  order,  in 
that  it  is,  of  all  human  organizations,  the  most  important  and 
must  by  its  very  nature  and  purpose  be  in  sympathetic 
accord  with  the  developing  life  of  the  people — a  real 
Catholic  Church  in  its  doctrine,  worship  and  spirit  and 
adapted  as  such  to  "all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men"  the 
world  over.  While  there  is  a  sense  in  which  the  church  as 
a  divine  institution  cannot  be  expected  to  modify  its  prin- 
ciples and  methods  in  obedience  to  the  requirements  of  the 
time,  it  is  also  true  that  as  a  human  institution  to  meet  hu- 
man needs  it  must  be  adaptive  to  current  conditions.  Hence, 
all  Creeds  and  Confessions  must  be  reviewed  with  reference 
to  possible  revision,  so  as  to  determine  on  what  common 
ground  of  doctrine  the  church  in  its  various  orders  may 


74  Timely  Topics 

stand.  Preserving  the  essential  values,  the  process  is  one  of 
re-adjustment  and  shifting  of  emphasis — of  justifiable  con- 
cessions and  compromise,  if  so  be  something  like  a  solid 
front  may  be  presented  to  the  un-Christian  world  and  all 
efforts  essentially  unified  by  a  common  purpose. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  heartening  signs  of  the  times  that 
such  an  enfranchising  process  is  at  work  throughout  the 
Christian  world,  intensified  in  its  spirit  and  method  by  the 
issues  of  the  recent  struggle,  and  teachers  of  theology  and 
the  Christian  ministry  at  large  are  keenly  alive  to  the  neces- 
sity and  advisability  of  bringing  the  modern  pulpit  in  line, 
as  far  as  it  is  possible,  with  the  newly  developed  spiritual 
needs  of  the  modern  world.  The  ecclesiastical  polity  of  the 
twentieth  century  is  too  expansive  and  virile  to  be  embodied 
in  the  restrictive  vestments  of  the  age  of  Richard  Hooker. 

When  a  recent  writer  in  a  work  entitled  "Christianity  in 
The  New  Age"  insists  on  what  he  calls  "The  Great  Ad- 
venture"— The  Need  of  an  Adventurous  Theology,  Disci- 
pleship  and  Church,  he  is  not  contending  for  any  ill-advised 
and  radical  revision  of  Protestant  Theology  and  Polity,  but 
only  for  a  wider  outlook  over  the  needs  of  the  Christian 
world  as  it  exists  to-day  and  a  more  catholic  interpreta- 
tion of  religious  truth  in  the  light  of  such  needs, — for  a 
church  as  broad  as  it  can  be  made  within  the  lines  of  biblical 
teaching.  Thus  it  is  clear  that  the  growth  of  liberalism  is 
one  of  the  outstanding  facts  of  the  time,  manifesting  itself 
in  every  phase  and  function  of  individual  and  national 
life — in  government  and  the  industries,  in  social  and  educa- 
tional institutions,  and  in  the  Christian  Church — a  movement 
as  irresistible  as  it  is  general  and  one  which  must  be  reck- 


The  Growth  of  Liberalism  75 

oned  with  by  every  lover  of  his  kind.  How  to  regulate  and 
safely  utilize  it  is  the  dominant  question  of  the  hour,  if  so 
be,  it  may  be  fraught  with  blessing  to  the  world  at  large. 

In  government,  civic  freedom  must  not  be  allowed  to 
pass  out  of  bounds  and  degenerate  into  open  revolution 
under  the  name  of  democracy.  In  social  and  industrial 
orders,  an  open  door  for  opportunity  to  all  classes  must 
not  be  so  widely  opened  as  to  admit  the  entrance  of  the 
lawless  and  justify  the  wildest  excesses  of  the  proletariat. 
In  education,  the  well  tested  traditions  of  the  earlier  eras 
must  not  be  swept  aside  simply  in  order  to  make  room  for 
every  new  demand  of  the  modern  school,  bceause  it  is  new, 
while,  above  all,  in  the  Christian  Church,  fundamental  truth 
must  be  presumed  at  all  hazards,  be  the  call  for  modification 
what  it  may.  There  is  no  need,  however,  for  conflict  be- 
tween the  old  and  the  new  orders,  each  of  which  must  be 
heeded  in  its  just  demands.  What  is  needed  is  sanity  and 
impartial  judgment — applying  restraint  when  it  is  needed 
and  giving  liberty  where  needed.  What  is  here  empha- 
sized is  this — that  in  a  comparatively  new  world — made 
new  by  the  course  of  history  and  the  order  of  Providence, 
new  points  of  view  must  be  assumed,  new  concessions  made, 
new  conditions  met  by  new  adaptations  and  adjustments 
and  a  friendly  temper  be  always  manifested  to  that  liberal- 
izing movement  which  is  one  of  the  most  distinctive  and 
promising  issues  of  the  hour. 

The  present  responsibility  of  the  church  is  so  serious  as 
to  be  almost  overwhelming  and  yet  so  essential  and  fraught 
with  such  commanding  issues  as  to  be  positively  inspiring. 
The  Hope  of  the  World — as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now 


j6  Timely  Topics 

and  ever  shall  be— The  Hope  of  the  World  is  the  Christian 
Church. 

It  is  not  in  any  governmental  systems,  however  well  ad- 
ministered, nor  in  any  social  or  industrial  order,  however 
impartially  established,  nor  even  in  any  merely  educational 
institution,  however  essential  to  the  world's  need,  but  it  is 
in  the  church,  primarily  and  finally  that  the  redemption  of 
the  race  is  guaranteed,  an  agency  which  as  yet  has  not  been 
even  approximately  tested  in  its  divinely  endowed  potency, 
but  which  when  fully  tested  will  usher  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God  on  earth,  the  only  autocracy  justifiable  among  men,  so 
that  after  centuries  of  political  experiment  as  to  what  order 
of  government  is  best  for  the  welfare  of  the  world,  we 
must  perforce  go  directly  back  to  the  days  of  Moses  and 
the  prophets  and  reinstate  the  old  Theocracy,  when  the 
kingdom  of  the  world  shall  recognize  but  one  order — the 
government  of  God  Himself,  whose  right  it  is  to  reign.  And 
thus  it  is  that  a  true  liberalism  and  a  true  conservatism  will 
meet  and  interact  and  the  New  Era  and  the  Old  Era  be 
unified  and  sanctified  to  a  common  end. 


Ill 


AMERICA'S  NEED  OF  STATESMEN 

A  living  American  Historian,  writing  of  Congressional 
Government  in  our  nation,  remarks,  "Somehow  the  Ameri- 
can Congress  fails  to  produce  capable  statesmen.  It  at- 
tracts politicians  who  display  affability  and  dexterity,  but 
who  are  lacking  in  discernment  of  public  needs  and  in  abil- 
ity to  provide  for  them,  so  that  power  and  opportunity  are 
often  associated  with  gross  political  incompetency" — an  or- 
der and  measure  of  incompetency,  we  may  add,  that  causes 
one  to  wonder  how  any  human  government  can  survive 
and  even  approximately  succeed  under  such  unfriendly 
conditions.  Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  "American  Commonwealth," 
dwells  at  length  on  this  conspicuous  feature  in  our  national 
life,  raising  the  question,  "Why  great  men  are  not  chosen 
Presidents"  and  the  further  question,  "Why  the  best  men 
do  not  go  into  Politics."  If  any  loyal  American  has  any 
doubt  on  this  subject,  a  careful  observation  of  the  Congress 
of  the  country  in  the  recent  months  of  discussion  of  The 
League  of  Nations  must  have  given  him  all  the  evidence 
he  needs  of  an  order  of  mental  and  administrative  ability 
far  below  the  level  of  what  should  be  found  in  a  body  of 
men  dealing  with  the  most  fundamental  and  far-reaching 
problems  of  national  and  international  interest.  Thus  it 
is  that  the  very  terms,  Statesmen  and  Statesmanship,  have 
become   sharply  differentiated   from   the   terms,    Politician 

77 


78  Timely  Topics 

and  Politics,  with  the  distinct  understanding  that  they  mean 
an  order  of  mind  and  mode-  of  action  far  this  side  of 
superiority,  one  of  the  astounding  facts  being  that  so  many 
of  these  mediocre  officials  are  so  utterly  ignorant  of  their 
own  limitations  as  to  willingly  present  themselves  before  the 
American  Electorate  in  candidacy  for  the  highest  govern- 
mental position  within  the  suffrage  of  the  people,  a  posi- 
tion second  to  none  in  its  high  demands  among  the  civil 
governments  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Bryce,  in  a  chapter,  "Types  of  American  Statesmen," 
submits  five  separate  orders  as  they  obtain  in  Europe — 
men  for  foreign  policy,  with  a  wide  outlook  over  the  world's 
horizon ;  men  for  social  and  economic  reform,  with  an  apti- 
tude for  constructive  legislation;  men  who  can  administer 
a  governmental  department  with  skill;  men  who  are  mere 
parliamentary  tacticians ;  and  men  who  can  sway  the  masses 
in  party  appeal,  and  it  is  to  the  fourth  and  fifth  classes, 
the  tacticians  and  successful  party  leaders,  that  he  con- 
signs the  rank  and  file  of  our  representatives, — excluding 
them  summarily  from  those  orders  where  "wide  outlook" 
and  "constructive  legislation"  are  in  demand,  and  here  is 
the  damaging  indictment  at  present.  When  the  most  im- 
posing and  world-embracing  problems  are  confronting  the 
country  and  its  counsellors  and  men  of  vision  and  mental 
range  are  needed  as  never  before,  we  must  be  satisfied 
with  mere  "tacticians"  and  "party  leaders"  and  the  repute 
of  American  legislation  suffer  untold  injury  in  the  light  of 
European  diplomacy.  It  is  nothing  less  than  humiliating 
to  see  what  we  have  so  signally  seen  of  late  in  Washington, 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  tossing  questions  of  con- 


America's  Need  of  Statesmen  79 

tinental  import  back  and  forth  over  the  floor  of  Congress 
with  the  irresponsibility  of  children  and  insisting  on  treat- 
ing great  international  issues  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
district  school.  With  but  few  exceptions  they  are  local 
legislators  and  that  only,  verbal  quibblers  and  that  only, 
mere  parochial  politicians  and  not  statesmen. 

I.  One  or  two  of  the  explanations  of  this  order  of  officials 
may  be  cited,  the  decadence  of  type  being  especially  notice- 
able since  the  Civil  War,  until  it  has  now  reached  the 
high  water  mark  of  inability. 

1.  The  first  assignable  reason  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
legislation  both  in  the  House  and  Senate  is  primarily  Par- 
tisan in  conception,  method  and  execution.  One  of  our 
most  representative  publicists  speaks  of  the  Senate  as  "the 
home  of  intrigue  and  jealousy" — especially  out  of  place  in 
the  Upper  House  of  Congress.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
when  historians  attempt  to  describe  the  type  and  spirit 
of  American  institutions,  they  must  devote  a  large  part  of 
their  time,  as  Mr.  Bryce  has  done,  to  "The  Party  System" 
and  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  revealing  and  condemning 
its  character  and  methods, — such  topics  as  "The  Spoils," 
"Rings  and  Bosses,"  "Corruption"  being  stressed  as  most 
in  evidence.  Instead  of  statesmen,  we  have  mere  politicians, 
instead  of  office  executives,  mere  office  seekers,  the  prime 
function  being  what  to  secure  from  their  office  in  the  way 
of  personal  and  partisan  advantage  and  not  what  to  give 
to  the  office  in  the  way  of  unselfish  service  for  the  nation's 
weal,  presidents  themselves  being  far  too  often  representa- 
tives of  a  party  and  not  of  the  commonwealth  at  large. 

2.  A  further  reason  for  this  type  of  legislators  is  found 


80  Timely  Topics 

in  the  fact  that  to  the  great  majority  of  Congressmen  leg- 
islation is  a  mere  Business  and  not  a  Vocation  of  high  ideal 
whereby  constitutional  government  is  reduced  to  the  basis 
of  commercialism.  Politics  is  a  Trade  and  not  a  Trust, 
or  if,  indeed,  a  Trust,  only  such  on  economic  and  not  on 
ethical  grounds.  Even  lower  still  has  the  decadence  of 
type  gone  until  we  speak  of  government  as  a  machine,  ma- 
nipulated as  such,  and  thus  reduced  to  the  level  of  the 
manual  arts.  The  legislative  body  as  a  whole  resolves  itself 
into  a  committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  no  close  questions 
being  entertained  as  to  what  the  Ways  and  Means  are,  if 
so  be  the  desired  results  are  reached.  The  composition  of 
the  Congress  is  largely  responsible  for  this  condition,  and 
for  this  reason  the  electorate  at  large  is  finally  responsible 
for  it.  "What  the  People  Think  of  It,"  as  Mr.  Bryce  asks,  is 
the  important  query.  As  to  the  House,  the  great  majority 
are  either  men  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  commerce, 
or  lawyers  whose  main  duties  have  been  far  more  mer- 
cantile than  juristic,  the  profession  of  Law  having  largely 
lost  its  type  as  a  Liberal  Calling,  and  become  a  commercial 
function.  Even  in  the  Upper  House,  most  of  the  members 
are  mere  financiers,  sent  to  Congress  by  the  people  to  protect 
and  foster  the  "Interests,"  so-called,  in  which  policy  must 
take  precedence  over  all  conflicting  claims.  Not  until  poli- 
tics ceases  to  be  a  handicraft  and  reverts  to  the  earlier  type 
of  a  vocation  and  trusteeship  will  the  demand  for  states- 
men be  heeded,  and  the  memory  of  the  days  of  Adams  and 
Madison,  Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  Clay  and  Calhoun,  and 
Webster  be  recalled. 


America's  Need  of  Statesmen  81 

II.  If  we  inquire  for  the  Essentials  of  statesmanship,  the 
answer  in  brief  is  at  hand : 

i.  A  mental  ability  above  the  average. 

2.  Administrative  function. 

3.  Accurate  knowledge  of  civil  government — municipal, 
state  and  national. 

4.  An  open  mind  to  ever  changing  conditions. 

5.  Ability  to  interpret  the  public  mind  and  need. 

6.  An  unselfish  devotion  to  the  public  weal. 

7.  Mental  breadth  so  as  to  be  a  loyal  American  with 
an  international  outlook. 

These  are  the  essentials  and  the  test  which  fit  a  man 
really  to  represent  the  people  instead  of  representing  a  party 
or  himself. 

III.  How  is  such  a  type  to  be  secured? 

1.  By  mental  discipline  in  early  life. 

2.  By  acquaintance  with  administrative  methods. 

3.  By  a  careful  study  of  civil  government.  Whatever 
may  be  the  decision  as  to  universal  military  training,  there 
should  be  universal  civil  instruction,  training  by  which  all 
the  youth  of  the  country,  whatever  their  prospective  voca- 
tions, should  be  indoctrinated  in  basic  governmental  prin- 
ciples and  methods,  in  the  history  and  purpose  of  free  in- 
stitutions. The  scheme  for  military  training  as  presented 
in  Congress  includes  very  appropriately  an  educational 
clause,  thus  saving  military  training  from  becoming  purely 
militaristic.  The  establishment  recently  in  New  York  City 
of  a  League  of  Public  Education  and  the  professed  erection 
of  a  new  Town  Hall  as  its  instructional  centre  is  clearly  in 
the  right  direction  and  full  of  promise. 


82  Timely  Topics 

4.  By  a  keen  observation  of  public  opinion  and  events, 
keeping  in  touch  with  the  temper  of  the  time. 

5.  By  personal  participation  in  political  affairs  of  a  local 
range,  so  as  to  be  prepared  when  it  is  found  necessary  for 
participation  in  larger  state  and  national  issues. 

6.  By  making  one's  self  conversant  with  the  best  books 
and  authorities  on  Civil  Government,  such  as  Hallam,  Bryce, 
Lowel,  Draper,  Van  Hoist,  Wilson  and  others,  with  such 
compends  as  The  English  Statesmen  Series,  the  American 
Statesmen  Series,  and  similar  Collections. 

By  one  method  or  another,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Amer- 
ican Body  Politic  must  acquaint  themselves  with  civic  meth- 
ods and  problems  in  democratic  commonwealths,  if  so  be 
they  may  be  in  readiness  for  civic  relations  and  responsi- 
bilities. The  time  has  come  and  fully  come  when  the  im- 
posing issues  of  the  nations  must  not  be  committed  to  the 
hands  of  novices  and  amateurs  in  statecraft,  mere  tacticians 
and  manipulators,  entering  political  life  for  personal  profit 
and  not  for  the  general  good.  To  this  country  the  eyes 
and  hopes  of  the  nations  struggling  for  free  institutions  are 
turned  as  never  before,  as  to  the  greatest  democratic  centre 
of  the  world,  and  to  make  the  great  experiment  successful 
and  worthy  of  imitation,  statesmen  are  needed  to  guide  and 
govern  the  people  aright. 

The  stirring  lines  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  are  well  in 

point : 

"Give   us   men, 
Men   of    thought   and   reading, 
Men   of   light   and    leading, 
The    nation's    welfare    speeding. 
Men    whom   highest   hope    inspires, 
Men   whom   present   honor    fires, 


The  American  Forum  of  Today  83 

Men   who    trample    self    beneath   them, 
Men   who   make   their  country   wreathe  them, 
As  her  noble   sons. 
Give  us  men," 

real  men  of  State  to  serve  the  state  with  ability  and  effici- 
ency.   This  is  one  of  America's  present  needs. 


THE  AMERICAN   FORUM   OF  TO-DAY 

The  old  Roman  Forum  of  pagan  days  where  the  Latins 
were  wont  to  assemble  in  open  session  for  the  discussion 
of  pending  problems  has  been  more  or  less  reproduced  in 
later  times  down  to  the  present  century.  Among  English- 
speaking  peoples  it  dates  back  to  the  Old  English  Folc-Mot, 
the  popular  assembly  of  the  Saxon  era,  which  summoned 
the  people  when  the  issues  of  the  state  demanded  a  National 
Convention,  as  the  great  Common  Council  of  the  time  re- 
produced in  modern  days  by  the  English  Hustings,  the 
Town-Meeting  of  the  New  England  States,  and  the  Plat- 
form of  Public  Address,  seen  most  comprehensively  in  the 
Political  Conventions  of  the  time  for  the  discussion  of 
Party  Issues,  but  now  enlarged  in  its  scope  by  the  discus- 
sion of  all  forms  of  questions  pressing  for  settlement,  in- 
dustrial, economic,  educational,  social  and  sanitary.  There 
is  a  sense  in  which  it  may  in  truth  be  said  that  one  of  the 
multiform  results  of  the  late  war  has  been  to  flood  the 
country  with  open  questions,  demanding  for  their  final 
settlement  a  great  Popular  Referendum — the  High  Court 
of  Appeal  as  conducted  by  the  Body  Politic.  The  Hustings 
and  the  Platform  have  thus  been  revived  and  accentuated 
and  once  again  as  of  old  the  "Vox  Populi"  is  heard  in  the 


84  Timely  Topics 

Open  Forum  of  the  people.  It  is  a  current  statement  that 
oratory,  as  a  form  of  expression,  has  declined  in  modern 
states,  partly  by  reason  of  the  increased  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge and  also  by  the  ever  enlarging  influence  of  the  Public 
Press,  it  being  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  it  is  the  method 
of  oral  address  that  has  declined  and  not  oratory  itself. 
What  Mr.  Bryce  calls  the  "inflated"  order  of  American 
oratory,  declamatory  and  vociferous,  appealing  to  senti- 
ment, and  feeling,  and  merely  personal  and  partisan  inter- 
est, has  declined  and  happily  so,  and  the  people  in  open  ses- 
sion are  demanding  a  deliberative  and  dispassionate  appeal 
to  their  reason  and  judgment  and  common  interest.  In  this 
respect,  the  living  voice  of  the  public  orator  has  not  been 
superseded,  nor  will  it  ever  be,  and  it  only  remains  for  the 
speaker  on  the  platform  to  conform  to  this  just  require- 
ment if  so  be  he  is  to  have  a  hearing  and  a  following.  In 
all  departments  of  oral  address,  this  condition  is  imperative. 
The  lawyer  before  the  jury  and  the  representative  of  the 
people  in  legislative  halls,  as  well  as  the  speaker  out  among 
the  people  at  large,  must  observe  and  obey  it.  These  con- 
ditions met,  the  way  is  open  for  the  best  efforts  of  the 
orator. 

Thomas  Carlyle,  among  the  many  pertinent  passages  that 
he  has  given  us  has  none  more  pertinent  than  this :  "There 
is  a  word,"  he  says,  "which  if  spoken  to  men,  to  the  actual 
generation  of  men,  will  stir  their  inmost  souls,  but  how 
to  find  that  word,  how  to  speak  it  when  found,"  which  is 
but  another  way  of  saying  that  if  a  man  has  something  to 
say  worth  saying  and  knows  how  to  say  it  in  fitting  form, 
he  will  always  be  assured  of  a  responsive  and  appreciative 


The  American  Forum  of  Today  85 

hearing.  What  is  insisted  on  by  the  open  assembly  con- 
vened for  enlightenment  on  pending  issues  is  that  there 
shall  be  real  oratory  and  not  mere  declamation,  real 
eloquence  and  not  mere  vocabulary,  real  thought  and  not 
mere  sentiment,  a  direct  appeal  to  the  understanding  and 
not  merely  to  the  imagination  or  the  emotions,  a  vital 
presentation  of  vital  questions,  so  that  the  audience  will  feel 
and  know  that  they  have  listened  to  a  man  who  has  com- 
mand of  the  subject  and  command  of  himself  and  the  com- 
mand of  his  auditors.  It  is  questionable  whether  the  Amer- 
ican Platform  has  ever  had  a  more  convincing  speaker  than 
Wendell  Phillips,  whose  order  of  oratory  was  high  above 
the  plane  of  the  merely  sensational,  and  was  so  natural,  nor- 
mal, undemonstrative  and  persuasive  as  to  be  scarcely  above 
the  level  of  the  conversational,  a  quiet  and  sober  and  cap- 
tivating type  of  address  under  the  influence  of  which  the 
hearer  felt  himself  mentally  quickened  and  profoundly  in- 
terested. 

The  reply  of  the  great  Greek  orator,  Demosthenes,  to  the 
question  as  to  what  were  the  essentials  of  eloquence,  that 
they  were,  first,  action,  secondly,  action,  and  again,  action, 
would  not  be  at  all  adequate  to  the  demands  of  today, 
when  in  and  with  the  elocutionary  and  semi-dramatic  action 
of  the  speaker  there  shall  be  seen  a  distinctive  intellectual 
action  and  always  in  authority  over  the  imagination  and 
feelings.  The  orator  is  more  than  an  elocutionist.  He  is 
the  conveyor  of  truth  to  the  human  mind,  the  expounder 
and  interpreter  of  truth.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Ameri- 
can Audience  of  today,  and  to  the  good  sense  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bar,  that  no  man,  however  fluent  of  speech,  will  be 


86  Timely  Topics 

heeded  who  substitutes  words  for  thought  and  becomes 
more  vociferous  and  vaporous  as  ideas  diminish.  It  is  in 
this  respect  that  the  mere  declaimer  is  ruled  out  of  order. 

It  is  recorded  of  Paul  that  when  he  appeared  in  Athens 
before  the  people  in  defence  of  Christian  doctrine,  cer- 
tain of  the  philosophers  who  were  present  and  curiously  in- 
terested in  this  apostle  of  the  new  faith,  exclaimed  "What 
will  this  babbler  say?"  and  it  was  not  until  he  convinced 
them  that  he  had  something  to  say  worth  saying  and  that  it 
would  be  well  for  them  to  heed,  that  they  replied,  "We 
will  hear  thee  again  of  this  matter,"  and  this  is  the  atti- 
tude generally  assumed  by  the  people  in  open  audience, 
"What  will  this  babbler  say?"  and  unless  he  speaks  from 
the  head  to  the  head,  and  to  the  point  in  temperate  and  rea- 
sonable terms,  they  will  have  none  of  him.  This  is  what 
Shakespeare  must  have  meant  as  Falstaff  says  to  Pistol,  "If 
thou  hast  anything  to  say,  Prithee,  deliver  it  like  a  man  of 
the  world,"  in  plain,  blunt  manner  along  the  lines  of  com- 
mon sense  as  man  talks  to  man  in  the  ordinary  intercourse 
of  life.  Deliver  it  in  direct  and  understandable  terms,  as  a 
business  in  hand  of  vital  moment  and  not  as  a  mere  speaker 
who  must  perforce  fill  the  time  allotted  to  him  and  in  the 
failure  to  realize  his  position,  must  resort  to  subterfuge 
and  all  the  devices  of  the  demagogue. 

The  advice  of  Hamlet  to  the  Players  is  as  essential  today 
as  ever,  that  the  speaker  should  not  "saw  the  air,"  and  "tear 
a  passion  all  to  tatters,"  that  in  "the  tempest  of  passion  he 
must  beget  temperance,"  "suit  the  word  to  the  action,  and 
the  action  to  the  word,"  "hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature." 
Shakespeare's  main   indictment   was  that  these  unworthy 


The  American  Forum  of  Today  87 

Players  "strutted  and  bellowed"  to  split  the  ears  of  the 
groundlings,  and  did  not  "imitate  humanity,"  their  violation 
of  naturalness  being  their  chief  offence  and  sure  to  result 
in  absolute  failure. 

An  orator  is  one  thing,  a  mere  platform  agitator,  a 
mountebank,  a  town-crier,  is  quite  another.  An  open  advo- 
cate of  truth  before  the  people  is  one  thing,  a  verbal  quib- 
bler,  juggling  with  words,  is  quite  another.  It  is  here  that 
the  personality  of  the  speaker  is  in  evidence,  the  man  be- 
hind the  message.  "The  Style  is  the  man"  in  oral  as  in 
written  language,  making  upon  the  auditor  an  impression  in 
and  through  the  message  he  is  delivering  and  thereby  adding 
immensely  to  the  impression  of  the  message.  The  "Vox 
Humana,"  however  potent,  is  far  less  so  than  the  man  him- 
self behind  the  voice.  This  is  a  type  of  address  imperatively 
demanded  by  Popular  Government  the  world  over,  based 
as  it  is  on  the  intelligence  of  the  people  at  large,  to  whom 
ultimately  all  public  questions  must  be  submitted.  "Democ- 
racy" we  are  told  "is  government  by  discussion"  and  this 
discussion  is  conducted  in  the  Open  Forum.  A  Free  Press 
must  be  reinforced  by  Free  Speech,  if  so  be  the  Free  In- 
stitutions of  the  modern  world  are  to  be  maintained  and 
perpetuated.  Hence  it  is  also  clear  beyond  dispute  that 
the  educational  centres  of  the  country,  our  schools  and  col- 
leges, must  train  up  a  generation  of  men  not  only  conver- 
sant with  public  issues  and  needs,  but  also  able  to  defend 
and  interpret  them  in  the  presence  of  the  people.  A  mere  ex- 
amination of  these  problems  in  the  Study  and  Library  be- 
hind closed  doors  will  not  do  in  an  age  such  as  this,  but  men 
must  emerge  into  the  open.     The  modern  world  has  be- 


88  Timely  Topics 

come,  in  a  sense,  a  great  Out-of-Doors  Convention,  waiting 
for  the  man  and  the  message  so  as  intelligently  to  fulfill  their 
civic  function.  Discipline  in  Oral  Address  along  natural 
and  normal  lines  should  find  its  place  in  every  college  sched- 
ule, so  as  to  prepare  the  undergraduate  to  take  his  place 
in  the  Forum  of  to-day  and  deliver  his  message  with  intelli- 
gent earnestness,  speaking  with  feeling  under  mental  control 
and  with  what  Aristotle  calls  "persuasive  efficacy." 

Such  an  order  of  American  Oratory  is  gradually  com- 
ing into  its  own.  The  vital  issues  of  the  day  are  so  big 
with  possibility  and  promise  and,  withal,  so  complex  and 
comprehensive  and  difficult  of  settlement,  that  the  best  abil- 
ity is  demanded  to  discuss  them  aright  in  open  assembly. 
The  American  Forum  is  now  established  anew  in  the  light 
of  present  conditions  for  the  discussion  of  pending  problems 
in  government  and  education,  and  the  social  order,  and 
the  call  of  the  country  is  for  speakers  having  something 
to  say  and  knowing  how  to  "deliver  it  like  men  of  the 
world." 


CONSTRUCTIVE  PROCESSES 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  may  be  said  that  all  the  forces, 
influences  and  functions  of  human  activity  might  be  clas- 
sified as  constructive  and  destructive — tending  more  or  less 
directly  to  organization  or  demolition, — a  principle  by  which 
all  movements  in  national  and  international  life  may  be 
safely  tested. 

Moreover,  human  nature  is  such  the  world  over,  either 
in  nations  or  individuals,  that  the  discouraging  and  deterior- 


Constructive  Processes  89 

ating  factors  are  seen  to  be  most  in  evidence,  requiring 
strenuous  and  constant  resistance  on  the  part  of  those  who 
would  promote  the  formative  factors.  Constituted  as  the 
present  order  of  the  universe  is,  all  things,  by  their  very 
nature,  tend  to  decline,  decadence  and  ultimate  extinction, 
and  the  mission  and  discipline  of  life  consists  mainly  in 
combating  the  tendencies  to  declension  by  instituting  a 
positive  tendency  in  the  line  of  formation.  Professor 
Drummond  in  his  suggestive  treatise,  "Natural  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World,"  has  a  significant  chapter  on  "Degenera- 
tion," in  which  he  develops  the  idea  that  this  practical  law 
is  so  active  and  insistent  that  men  and  nations  alike  must 
be  on  guard  at  every  moment  lest  it  become  dominant  and 
the  process  of  degeneration  end  at  length  in  atrophy  and 
death.  There  is  a  law  of  gravitation  downward  in  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  world  as  potent  as  the  law  of  grav- 
itation in  the  physical  world. 

Another  chapter  in  which  "Growth"  is  described  as  a 
controlling  counteracting  principle  sets  forth  these  two 
agencies  as  contending  for  supremacy — those  of  Destruc- 
tion and  Construction — the  progress  of  the  world  being  de- 
pendent on  the  supremacy  of  the  constructive  processes 
over  all  that  tends  to  destruction.  We  are  living  at  a  time 
when  these  constructive  processes  are  demanded  as  never 
before,  if  so  be  the  world  is  to  escape  the  evils  that  threat- 
en it  and  is  to  be  really  rehabilitated  on  sound  and  stable 
foundations.  The  New  Map  of  the  World  now  in  process 
of  making  must  be  a  map  in  which  old  lines  and  boundaries 
are  to  be  redrawn,  old  methods  and  principles  re-examined, 


90  Timely  Topics 

and  a  new  and  broader  basis  laid  on  which  the  structure  of 
society  may  securely  rest. 

i.  In  Government,  the  vital  need  and  demand  of  the  age 
is  Constructive  Legislation  as  opposed  to  all  that  is  indirect, 
reactionary  and  negative — a  positive  and  definite  establish- 
ment of  civil  government  as  distinct  from  legislation  that 
is  only  punitive  and  prohibitive.  The  discussions  of  the 
American  Congress  in  recent  months  furnish  a  convincing 
commentary  on  the  need  of  this  higher  and  better  method — 
the  major  portion  of  the  legislation  revealing  but  little  con- 
ception of  what  constitutional  government  really  means. 
We  speak  suggestively  of  the  Formation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  Union,  of  the  Founding  of  the  Republic,  of 
the  Organization  of  States  and  Laws — terms  demanding 
positive  processes.  We  speak  of  the  Building  of  a  Nation 
as  an  English  historian  writes  of  "The  Making  of  Eng- 
land"— a  kind  of  architectural  method  applied  to  civic  inter- 
ests— synthetic  rather  than  analytic — by  which  the  nation 
is,  so  to  speak,  erected,  built  up  by  regular  stages  from 
base  to  capstone.  When  one  of  our  American  historians, 
in  writing  of  Hamilton,  includes  him  among  "the  states- 
men of  creative  minds  who  represent  great  ideas,"  he  im- 
plies that  such  civil  representatives  know  what  is  meant  by 
organized  processes  in  the  state.  In  fact,  the  political  ex- 
ponents of  any  country  can  be  correctly  classified  on  this 
principle — whether  or  not  they  are  constructive  in  their 
speaking  and  acting.  Writers  on  constitutional  history, 
such  as  Stubbs  and  Hallan,  Bryce  and  Fiske,  rightly  em- 
phasize this  principle,  insisting  that  the  very  term — consti- 
tutional— implies   this   formative   process,   the   shaping  of 


Constructive  Processes  91 

the  state,  from  one  degree  of  betterment  to  another,  until 
the  civil  edifice  is  completed.  Civil  engineering,  which 
etymologically  means  state  engineering,  must  be  construc- 
tive. 

2.  So  in  the  Scientific  world,  where  the  Arts  of  Peace 
should  predominate  over  the  Arts  of  War,  the  main  prom- 
ise of  science  at  present  lying  in  the  fact  that  the  discovery 
and  invention  of  the  practical  and  useful  arts  will  take  the 
place  of  the  destructive  devices  of  the  late  war,  by  which 
scientific  talent,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  temporarily  di- 
verted from  its  main  and  beneficent  mission  to  the  lower 
function  of  furnishing  the  opposing  armies  with  the  in- 
struments of  destruction — murder  in  the  first  degree  under 
the  name  of  advanced  science.  The  sinews  of  peace  must 
now  displace  the  sinews  of  war. 

3.  So  in  the  Commercial  world,  where,  unfortunately, 
mere  exploitation  and  shrewd  bargaining  so  often  assume 
the  place  of  primacy.  He  to  whom  business  in  all  its  form 
is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  great  organizing  function, 
is  the  real  man  of  affairs.  High  Finance,  as  it  is  called, 
thus  means  an  order  of  monetary  method  infinitely  removed 
from  the  dominant  object  of  overdoing  and  undoing  and 
outwitting  a  commercial  competitor.  The  great  representa- 
tive men  in  commerce  and  trade  are,  first  and  last,  Con- 
structionists, and  not  mere  manipulators  of  goods  and  sys- 
tems at  the  expense  of  the  public  at  large,  building  up  the 
industries  of  the  country  even  at  some  sacrifice  of  personal 
gain — the  promoters  of  the  best  interests  of  their  customers 
and  contributing  directly  to  the  common  good.  "Big  Bus- 
iness," so  called,  should  be  big  in  its  high  ideals.     In  the 


92  Timely  Topics 

early  history  of  the  country,  Alexander  Hamilton  won  the 
distinction  that  he  did  in  the  sphere  of  national  finance  be- 
cause as  United  States  Treasurer  he  built  up  the  govern- 
ment's finances  by  a  constructive  method  that  is  as  stable 
to-day  as  when  he  established  it. 

4.  So  in  the  Literary  World.  An  author,  by  the  very 
meaning  of  the  word,  is  one  who  increases  the  sum  total 
of  human  knowledge,  adding  a  substantial  contribution  to 
the  existing  content  of  truth, — a  producer  and  not  a  mere 
re-producer,  a  creative  mental  factor  in  the  realm  of  liter- 
ary art  and  not  a  mere  collector  or  collaborator  of  facts  and 
events.  Especially  in  the  sphere  of  criticism  is  this  con- 
structive principle  needed,  the  very  words,  critical  and  crit- 
icism implying  that  the  function  of  the  literary  censor  is 
destructive  only,  detecting  and  exposing  with  a  good  degree 
of  mental  arrogance  the  defects  of  any  book  that  is  exam- 
ined, thus  nullifying  what  should  be  the  main  purpose  of 
critical  procedure,  the  emphasis  of  excellence  and  the  con- 
sequent encouragement  of  authors.  Nothing  is  easier  than 
to  sit  in  judgment  on  others,  and  the  major  sin  that  lies  at 
the  door  of  much  of  the  literary  criticism  from  the  days 
of  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers  to  the  present  is  that  it  has 
been  in  the  main  censorious  and  not  generous,  suppressive 
and  not  stimulating,  undermining  and  not  upbuilding.  All 
great  critics,  such  as  Lessing,  Sainte  Beuve,  DeQuincy  and 
Coleridge,  have  been  constructive. 

5.  So  in  the  sphere  of  Philosophy  and  Theology,  depart- 
ments of  study  and  investigation  which  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Schoolmen,  were  co-ordinated  and 
conducted  along  similar  lines  of  inquiry.     Especially  since 


Constructive  Processes  93 

the  Franco-Prussian  War  have  philosophical  studies  in  Ger- 
many passed  from  the  positive  and  constructive  type  to  the 
province  of  pure  speculation,  generally  ending  in  the  bold 
denial  of  all  accepted  principles,  represented  in  the  system 
of  Schopenhauer  and  Nietszche  and  less  influential  authors. 
There  is  a  need  of  the  revival  of  the  old  Common-Sense 
Philosophy  of  the  Scottish  School,  a  Positive  Philosophy 
which  is  no  misnomer,  as  was  that  of  Compte,  a  real 
philosophy  of  "The  Enlightenment,"  more  confirming  still 
than  that  of  Locke,  a  presentation  to  inquiring  minds  of  the 
salient  principles  of  mental  science,  a  genuine  realism  as 
opposed  to  a  purely  fanciful  idealism.  One  of  the  best  fea- 
tures of  the  recent  prominence  of  pragmatism  is  that  it  is 
a  protest  against  a  merely  negative  philosophy  in  favor  of 
a  concrete  and  practical  system  that  commends  itself  as 
rational  and  useful. 

In  the  special  sphere  of  Theology  as  a  distinct  department 
of  study,  increasing  emphasis  has  been  laid  not  only  in  Ger- 
many but  in  Continental  Europe  and  English-speaking  coun- 
tries on  what  is  known  as  Apologetics,  wherein  the  attitude 
is  one  of  defence  rather  than  one  of  the  aggressive  asser- 
tion of  fundamental  truth.  The  refutation  of  abstruse 
theories  has  taken  largely  the  place  of  affirmative  argument 
by  which  faith  may  be  confirmed  and  the  basis  of  belief 
strengthened.  In  fine,  the  ultimate  purpose  has  been  to 
disprove  an  alleged  objection  and  not  to  prove  a  definite 
proposition.  Such  a  positive  presentation  of  doctrine  as 
Balfour  gives  us  in  his  "Foundations  of  Belief,"  McCosh  in 
"Fundamental  Truth,"  expresses  the  exceptional  and  not 
the  prevailing  method  of  discussion,  the  result  being  a  dis- 


94  Timely  Topics 

turbance  of  the  convictions  of  the  reader  or  hearer  and  an 
addition  to  the  already  sufficiently  large  amount  of  Open 
Questions.  Confessions  of  Faith  thus  become  Confessions 
of  Doubt,  tending  to  actual  unbelief. 

Thus  it  is  that  Constructive  Processes  are  in  urgent  de- 
mand and  must  be  applied  in  ever  enlarging  function,  if  so 
be  the  best  results  are  to  be  reached  in  the  way  of  the  world's 
betterment,  a  building  up  of  all  institutions  and  agencies 
that  have  succumbed  to  the  stress  of  destructive  forces  and 
a  building  up  of  new  institutions  to  meet  the  new  demands  of 
the  time.  The  world  at  large  is  in  process  of  reorganization, 
and  the  special  agencies  now  in  order  in  church  and  state 
and  the  world  at  large  are  those  which  are  specifically 
structural. 

One  of  the  most  damaging  criticisms  of  the  final  ac- 
countings of  The  Versailles  Conference  lies  along  this  line, 
that  old  diplomatic  policies  of  secrecy  and  double  dealing 
and  selfish  interests  too  largely  prevailed,  thus  ensuring 
future  discord  and  hostility.  The  imperative  demand  of 
the  people  is  for  a  Covenant  of  Settlement,  at  the  same  time 
just  and  generous,  impartial  and  yet  conciliatory,  righteous 
and  yet  beneficent — a  real  contribution  to  the  harmony  of 
nations,  the  building  up  of  a  great  brotherhood  of  states, 
in  a  word,  a  broadly-based,  well-ordered,  Constructive  Peace. 

NATIONAL  RIGHTS  AND  NATIONAL  DUTIES 

Especially  since  the  rise  of  Modern  England  and  Modern 
Europe  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  we  have  heard  the  doctrine 
of  the  Rights  of  Men  proclaimed  from  every  civilized  cen- 


National  Rights  and  National  Duties  95 

tre.  The  older  historic  principle  of  the  Tenure  of  Kings 
and  their  Divine  Right,  as  contested  by  Milton  and  Burke 
and  Thomas  Paine,  has  given  place  to  a  broader  democratic 
policy,  and  the  Rights  of  the  People,  in  their  capacity  as 
States  and  Nations,  have  come  to  the  front  with  ever  in- 
creasing emphasis. 

I.  Source  of  the  Rights. 

If  we  inquire  as  to  the  ground  or  Source  of  National 
Rights,  we  find  it  to  be  two-fold. 

1.  Some  are  Natural,  Absolute  Rights,  inherent,  in  a 
sense,  by  the  very  laws  of  national  existence,  and,  as  such, 
indispensable.  It  is  thus  that  our  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence opens  with  the  assertion  that  the  Colonies  are  "to  as- 
sume the  separate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of 
nature  *  *  *  entitle  them,"  and  that  among  "self-evident 
truths,"  they  are  "endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights, — life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." As  such,  these  Rights  are  outside  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Court,  independent  of  the  common  codes  of  law,  based 
as  they  are  on  principles  so  fundamental  as  to  be  beyond 
dispute,  "To  secure  these  Rights,  governments  are  insti- 
tuted, deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed."  On  these  Rights  debate  is  closed,  and  when 
disputed  or  opposed  offer  just  provocation  for  war,  it  be- 
ing "the  right  and  duty"  of  people  to  guard  and  maintain 
them.  Hereby  there  exists  in  every  properly  constituted 
state  a  Court  of  Claims,  conscious  of  their  Rights  and  in- 
sistent on  their  maintenance  at  all  hazards. 

2.  Some  of  these  Rights  are  Relative  and  Conferred  by 
Civic  Statute,  and,  as  such,  within  the  province  of  discus- 


96  Timely  Topics 

sion,  modification  and  possible  repeal.  "The  Bill  of  Rights." 
so-called,  established  in  England  in  1689,  was  such  a  docu- 
ment— "A  Declaration  of  Rights"  by  legitimate  civil  au- 
thority, determining  the  proper  constitutional  relations  of 
the  King  and  the  people  and  his  subjects.  In  no  sense  nat- 
ural or  absolute,  they  were  the  result  of  governmental  agree- 
ment and  open  at  times  to  revision. 

Every  political  constitution,  written  or  unwritten,  is  such 
a  Bill,  fixing  the  boundaries  of  civic  rule,  its  prerogatives 
and  its  conditions,  an  order  of  Rights,  therefore,  admitting 
of  amendment  when  the  general  good  demands  it.  To  es- 
tablish the  equitable  relations  of  these  two  orders  of  Rights 
referring  each  to  its  proper  sphere,  has  been  a  matter  of  con- 
troversy ever  since  constitutional  government  was  estab- 
lished, the  line  of  separation  between  the  two  being  often  so 
delicate  as  to  be  scarcely  discernible,  a  kind  of  neutral  zone 
over  which  neither  claimant  has  original  jurisdiction. 

As  might  be  supposed,  national  history  is  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  a  record,  on  the  part  of  nations,  of  National 
Claims.  From  the  days  of  the  Norman  Conquest  when 
William  the  Conqueror  claimed  the  possession  of  England 
by  the  law  of  indefeasible  ownership  down  to  the  present 
these  Claims  have  been  asserted.  Defying  the  accepted  legal 
principle  that  protracted  possession  constitutes  an  indis- 
putable right  to  ownership,  these  insistent  claimants  pro- 
pose a  prior  right  and  proceed  at  once  to  secure  it.  The 
basis  of  these  Claims  is  National  Greed,  the  individual  sin 
of  selfishness  transferred  to  a  whole  people  and  brooking  no 
denial.  As  it  is  said,  in  colloquial  language,  "everything  in 
sight"  is  claimed.     No  clearer  proof  of  this  colossal  greed 


National  Rights  and  National  Duties  97 

can  be  furnished  than  that  which  is  given  in  the  history  of 
Colonial  Acquisition,  where  colonization  has  so  often,  and 
indeed,  generally,  meant  usurpation. 

Exploitation  and  forcible  conquest  in  the  name  of  coloni- 
zation and  the  Rights  of  Man,  a  bold  and  defiant  announce- 
ment of  the  Right-of-Way  across  the  lands  and  into  the 
territory  of  any  and  every  people.  The  outstanding  sin  of 
national  history  is  that  of  Self-interest,  quite  athwart  the 
interests  of  others,  the  scientific  law  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  applied  in  the  domain  of  national  life.  The  recent 
war  has  furnished  a  graphic  example  of  this  bold  assertion 
of  Rights  in  the  face  of  every  principle  of  justice,  ignor- 
ing all  distinction  between  Rights  as  Natural  and  Absolute 
and  those  that  are  the  righteous  result  of  counsel  and  legis- 
lation. Among  the  Issues  of  the  Hour,  as  now  pending, 
there  is  none  more  pronounced  and  vital  than  this.  A 
priori,  to  each  nation  belongs  the  national  right  of  Self-de- 
termination, Self-development,  and  this  cannot  be  invaded 
and  annulled  save  by  a  violent  infringement  of  common  law. 
In  what  Carlyle  would  call  this  "death-birth  of  a  world," 
this  infringement  is  in  force  and  a  sufficient  warrant  of  some 
kind  of  a  League  of  Nations  is  found  in  the  fact  that  this 
boundary  between  natural  and  acquired  rights  must  be  defi- 
nitely fixed  and  the  different  peoples  of  the  world  know 
what  is  legitimately  theirs  and  what  is  not.  It  is  on  the  ad- 
justment of  this  relation,  indeed,  that  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation is  based,  and  the  prospective  peace  of  the  world. 

II.  Duties. 

And  here  we  come  to  the  fundamental  principle  that  there 
are  National  Duties  as  well  as  National  Rights — that  these 


98  Timely  Topics 

are  interactive  and  indissolubly  related  so  that  every  polit- 
ical prerogative  should  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  political 
duty.  There  is  a  Court  of  Civic  Obligations  as  well  as  a 
Court  of  Civic  Claims,  the  great  Appellate  Court,  that  of 
Final  Appeal,  an  imposing  civic  referendum,  so  that  what- 
ever the  so-called  Absolute  Rights  of  a  people  may  be,  they 
are  so  in  obedience  to  the  still  higher  law  of  civic  duty  and 
responsibility. 

In  fine,  National  Rights  have  their  Limitations  and  Con- 
ditions. The  First  is  that  of  National  Trusteeship  in  the 
light  of  which  National  Rights  should  be  at  times  surren- 
dered, in  part,  for  the  common  good  of  the  world.  Every 
nation  is  a  trustee,  and  that  only,  of  whatever  "inalienable 
rights,"  so-called,  it  may  have  and  in  the  last  analysis  holds 
them  in  trust  for  mankind  at  large.  Despite  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Rights  of  Kings,  the  Divine  Right  of  the  peo- 
ple at  times  takes  precedence  over  it,  as  in  the  ''Bill  of 
Rights"  of  1689,  whose  chief  purpose  was  to  define  the 
King's  so-called  prerogatives  and  set  the  bounds  to  his  lib- 
erty. The  great  English  Revolution  of  1688  once  for  all 
settled  the  question  that  Kings  should  rule  under  fixed  con- 
ditions, a  law  that  obtains  in  church  and  state.  No  nation, 
whatever  its  inherent  authority  and  privilege,  is  outside  the 
province  of  Civic  Trusteeship.  However  undisputed  the 
National  Rights  may  be,  there  are  exigencies  in  national 
life  when  civic  obligations  override  civic  claims  and  what  is 
called  the  Sovereignty  of  the  State  must  yield  to  a  higher 
power.  The  Political  Millennium  will  never  dawn  until  this 
principle  is  acknowledged  and  applied. 

A  further  limitation  is  that  which  grows  out  of  what  we 


National  Rights  and  Natiotial  Duties  99 

understand  by  the  Law  of  the  Association  of  States.  The 
World  of  Nations  now,  as  never  before,  is  a  Great  Civic 
Confederation,  in  which  for  the  first  time  in  history  all  or- 
dinary territorial  boundaries  have  been  crossed  and,  in  a 
senses,  cancelled,  and  what  Whitman  would  call  "The  Open 
Road"  is  traversed  by  all.  This  is  the  real  Highway  of 
the  Nations,  free  for  the  passage  of  all  peoples.  In  a  word, 
one  of  the  Limitations  of  National  Rights  is  International 
Rights,  the  imperative  demand  that,  at  times,  and  for  suffi- 
cient reason,  national  claims,  however  just,  shall  yield  to 
international  claims,  as  those  of  states  yield  to  the  nation  at 
large.  As  in  times  of  stress  a  nation  may  lawfully  appro- 
priate personal  property,  so  may  the  interests  of  the  world 
at  large  at  times  demand  the  surrender  of  national  claims. 
It  was  John  Milton  who  wrote  in  his  "Tenure  of  Kings," 
"Who  knows  not  that  there  is  a  national  bond  of  brother- 
hood between  man  and  man  all  over  the  world,  neither  is 
it  the  English  sea  that  can  sever  us  from  that  duty  and  rela- 
tion," which  is  but  another  way  of  stating  that  English  poli- 
tics could  not  be  insular  but  must  cross  the  channel  to 
Europe  and  assume  continental  function,  and  cross  the 
oceans  to  Asia  and  Africa  and  assume  world-wide  function. 
It  is  this  that  Thomas  Moore  and  Swift  had  in  mind  as  they 
wrote  on  "International  Relations";  that  Richard  Hooker 
had  in  mind  when  he  declared  that  the  voice  of  the  law,  the 
Law  of  Nations,  was  "The  Harmony  of  the  World";  that 
Milton  had  in  mind  as  he  wrote  of  the  "Brotherhood  of 
Man";  that  Shelley  must  have  had  in  mind  as  he  sang  "The 
World's  Great  Age  Begins  Anew";  that  Viscount  Morley 
had  in  mind  as  he  wrote  of  "The  Spirit  of  Liberalism"; 


ioo  Timely  Topics 

that  Washington  had  in  mind  as  he  wrote  of  "America  and 
the  World."  We  are  too  far  along  in  the  course  of  his- 
tory to  live  by  the  laws  of  tradition  and  precedent,  but 
must  break  way,  as  Bacon  would  express  it,  into  "universal- 
ity." There  is  a  greater  declaration  than  that  of  American 
Independence.  It  is  that  of  American  Interdependence, 
World  Interdependence,  and  no  nation  of  the  modern  world 
can  safely  ignore  and  underrate  it.  The  world  has  become  a 
great  Mutual  Benefit  Society  for  the  transaction  of  World 
Business,  a  great  Federated  Commonwealth,  and  he  only  is 
a  real  patriot  whose  outlook  and  sympathies  and  ideals  are 
international. 

In  fine,  National  Rights  and  National  Duties  are  inter- 
dependent and  inseparable,  determining  each  other  and  to- 
gether making  up  the  ideal  state,  and  here  we  come  back,  as 
we  must  always  come  back,  in  the  study  either  of  individual 
or  corporate  life,  to  the  Law  of  Sacrifice  and  Service.  If 
men  and  nations  were  heard  less  frequently  loudly  and  de- 
fiantly asserting  their  Rights  and  preparing  to  defend  them, 
and  oftener  heard  reiterating  their  duties  and  obligations, 
the  Golden  Age  would  be  at  its  dawning.  We  are  apt  to 
sum  up  the  Creeds  of  Christendom  in  the  Dualogue — the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man,  as  if  they 
were  equally  firmly  established,  forgetful  that  the  first  and 
the  first  only  is  a  fact  and  the  second  an  ideal  far  in  the 
future  for  realization,  and  the  road  to  its  realization  lies 
straight  through  the  open  highway  of  national  sacrifice  and 
service  for  the  general  good.  The  Great  Commission  of 
the  Head  of  the  Church  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature"  is  after  all  the  Great  Com- 


Level-Head  edness  101 

mission  to  Modern  States.  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel — the  gospel  of  Civic  Trusteeship  and 
Civic  Brotherhood  and  Civic  Sacrifice  and  Service — to  every 
creature"  until  Civic  Rights  and  Civic  Duties  interblend 
to  the  world's  political  salvation. 


LEVEL-HEADEDNESS 

The  most  startling  result,  in  some  respects,  of  the  late 
world  crisis  expresses  itself  in  the  form  of  Unrest,  in 
thought  and  life,  in  individual  and  national  spheres,  in  all 
the  phases  and  forms  of  human  activity.  In  some  respects 
a  natural  characteristic,  it  has  become  so  intensified  of  late 
as  to  arrest  the  attention  and  excite  the  anxiety  of  all  ob- 
servers of  the  course  of  contemporary  history.  Not  only 
Central  Europe  but  the  world  at  large  is  in  a  state  of  fer- 
ment, a  seething  mass,  volcanic  in  its  character  and  liable 
at  any  moment  to  break  forth  in  violent  and  destructive 
eruption.  Events  shift  so  rapidly  from  one  phase  to  an- 
other that  the  effect  is  panoramic,  spectacular,  and  even 
dramatic,  as  the  movement  progresses  from  stage  to  stage 
through  act  and  scene  toward  the  final  catastrophe.  Not 
only  do  individuals  change  from  one  status  to  another  but 
entire  peoples  pass  from  one  function  to  another  with  start- 
ling suddenness,  ignoring  the  natural  stage  of  transition 
that  is  supposed  to  intervene  in  any  transformation.  In 
biblical  phrase  "the  whole  head  is  sick,"  the  heads  of  the 
body  politic  have  been  turned,  so  that  in  the  emergency 
what  is  most  needed  is  Mental  Restoration,  the  presence 
and  control  of  what  we  mean  by  Level-Headedness. 


102  Timely  Topics 

1.  What  its  elements  are  is  our  main  inquiry. 

i.  Deliberation,  or  as  the  word  etymologically  means,  bal- 
ance, poise,  and  equipoise,  a  weighing  of  all  factors  by  a 
just  scale,  the  rule  of  reason  over  blind  and  lawless  impulse, 
reflection  as  opposed  to  rash  procedure,  taking  time  enough 
to  examine  all  the  conditions  involved  for  reaching  safe  con- 
clusions. It  is  the  heedless,  head-foremost  method  of  ir- 
rational haste  that  is  the  frequent  cause  of  disaster,  acting 
before  thinking,  with  no  attempt  to  deliberate  before  de- 
ciding. 

Moderation  is  the  need,  an  order  of  action  based  on  a 
modus,  a  well-defined  method,  an  avoidance  of  extreme 
measures.  It  is  in  violation  of  this  cardinal  principle  that 
men  act  in  a  precipitate  manner,  obstinately  regardless  of 
reason.  The  Scriptural  injunction,  "Let  your  moderation 
be  known  to  all  men,"  is  as  applicable  to  the  affairs  of  ordi- 
nary life  and  in  the  action  of  states  as  in  the  spiritual  sphere. 
We  speak  of  social  order,  of  the  orderly  processes  of  gov- 
ernment and  industry.  It  is  simply  another  name  for  de- 
liberation and  moderation  as  opposed  to  intemperate  action, 
the  assumption  of  a  safe  middle  ground  this  side  of  radical- 
ism. The  rule  of  restraint  within  reasonable  limits  is  here 
in  place.  One  of  the  University  Examinations  at  Oxford 
is  called  "Moderations,"  midway  in  the  student's  course  and 
between  the  lower  and  higher  range  of  studies.  It  would 
be  well  if  men  and  nations  were  periodically  submitted  to 
such  a  test. 

2.  Steadfastness,  or  as  the  earlier  word  expresses  it, 
Standfastness,  is  a  factor,  an  order  of  mind  and  character 
which  Luther  exhibited  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  "Hier  stehe 


L  evel-Headedness  1 03 

ich."  Here  again  the  biblical  statement  is  in  place.  "He 
that  wavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea,  driven  with  the 
wind  and  tossed."  Such  men  are  "double-minded,  unstable 
in  all  their  ways."  Their  heads,  instead  of  being  on  the 
level,  are  in  the  air.  As  we  say  in  pungent  phrase,  they 
lose  their  heads.  They  are  out  of  their  heads,  in  a  sense, 
delirious,  able  to  execute  the  gymnastic  feat  of  standing  on 
their  heads,  with  heels  over  head  and  do  all  their  thinking 
in  that  inverted  position,  vacillating  men  whom  we  never 
know  where  to  find,  volatile  men,  flying  rapidly  from 
pole  to  pole,  the  sport  of  every  wind  that  blows.  The  word 
of  command  from  the  captain  of  a  ship  in  a  storm,  or  of 
a  general  in  the  stress  of  battle,  is  "steady,"  "keep  your 
heads."  It  is  this  order  of  mind  that  is  an  indispensable 
factor  in  what  we  call  Level-Headedness,  or  stability,  by  vir-- 
tue  of  which  men  and  nations  are  to  fill  their  place  and  do 
their  work.  "A  wise  man's  eyes  are  in  his  head,"  we  are 
told  in  Holy  Writ,  and  not  in  his  feet  or  abdomen.  What 
he  does  he  does  on  the  level,  and  it  is  always  known  where 
to  find  him  in  any  given  emergency. 

3.  Power  of  Discrimination  is  also  an  essential  factor  in 
preserving  this  mental  poise,  an  ability  to  distinguish  be- 
tween things  that  differ,  when  at  first  sight  they  seem  to  be 
identical  or  similar,  ability  to  distinguish  between  the  true 
and  the  false,  the  primary  and  secondary,  the  temporary  and 
permanent,  the  substantial  and  superficial,  the  feasible  and 
the  impracticable,  between  principle  and  mere  details,  be- 
tween the  general  and  special,  between  facts  and  the  infer- 
ences from  the  facts,  between  testimony  and  mere  opinion, 
between  the  inherent  and  the  merely  relative,  between  the 


104  Timely  Topics 

obligatory  and  the  permissive ;  in  a  word,  the  faculty  of  dis- 
cernment. It  is  what  the  diagnosis  is  to  the  physician,  an 
order  of  mind  that  can  detect  and  interpret  symptoms  so  as 
to  act  in  the  light  of  them, — Such  a  man  is  proof  against  the 
multiform  phases  of  deception  that  arise  and  refuses  to  be 
carried  away  by  mere  appearances  in  the  examination  of  any 
course  of  action. 

4.  There  is  a  further  factor  involved,  which  may  be 
called  Symmetrical  Mental  Development,  the  concomitant 
culture  of  the  intellect,  feelings  and  will  in  their  organic 
and  vital  relations  to  each  other,  so  as  to  make  what  we 
suggestively  style  all-round  men. 

It  is  thus  that  men  may  be  saved  from  a  partial  one-sided 
half-developed  training,  by  which  truth  cannot  possibly  be 
seen  in  its  many-sidedness  and  multiform  applications,  its  di- 
versity in  common  with  its  unity.  Men  but  half-educated 
are  the  easy  prey  of  distorted  and  imperfect  views  of  truth, 
victims  of  all  sorts  of  vagaries.  One  of  the  most  dangerous 
errors  to  which  undue  Specialization  leads  is  here,  by  which 
a  man  views  every  event  or  proposition  from  the  one  stand- 
point and  determines  its  value  or  uselessness  accordingly. 
One-sidedness  is  the  flagrant  error  of  the  Specialist.  In 
athletic  phraseology  he  is  off-side  and  refuses  to  play  in  the 
line  where  his  proper  place  as  a  contestant  is,  and  away 
from  which  he  subjects  himself  to  penalty  and  failure. 

There  is  the  absolute  need  of  self-control  so  that  a  man 
shall  hold  himself  ever  in  hand  in  the  constant  temptation 
to  swerve  from  the  level  and  the  line.  "Let  thine  eyes  look 
right  on,  and  thine  eyelids  straight  before  thee,"  is  the 
biblical  order  and  the  essential  order  if  men  are  to  work  and 


Level-Head  edness  105 

walk  sanely.  In  common  speech,  we  use  the  terms,  sanitary 
and  unsanitary,  as  applicable  to  physical  conditions  only, 
when  as  a  matter  of  fact,  mental  conditions  are  fully  as  much 
involved  and  it  becomes  the  duty  of  Boards  of  Health  to 
guard  the  mind  against  the  abnormal  influences  that  affect  it. 

Deliberation,  Moderation,  Steadfastness,  Discrimination 
and  Symmetry  of  Training,  these  are  the  primary  constit- 
uents of  the  level  mind,  which  is  but  another  name  for  San- 
ity, a  type  of  mentality  as  rare  as  it  is  invaluable.  How  few 
there  are  who  are  absolutely  sane  in  this  sense,  normal  in 
their  thinking  and  acting,  moving  along  the  straight  line  of 
duty  without  deflection  right  or  left,  upward  or  downward 
as  every  passing  influence  may  swerve  them,  but  ever  on 
the  level,  rectilinear  in  their  attitude  and  movements,  hold- 
ing themselves  horizontally  to  the  given  line. 

The  Urgent  Need  of  Level-Headedness  in  times  of  crisis 
such  as  those  now  at  hand  is  beyond  all  question.  Even  in 
the  course  of  ordinary  events,  as  the  world  goes  on  from 
day  to  day,  this  type  and  temper  of  mind  are  in  place.  The 
jurist  needs  it  in  complex  judicial  proceedings.  The  medi- 
cal practitioner  needs  it  in  determining  symptoms  and  modes 
of  medical  aid.  The  Christian  minister  and  pastor  needs  it 
in  the  delicate  duties  of  his  ofhce.  The  journalist  needs  it 
in  dealing  with  the  diverse  questions  that  confront  him. 
Men  of  affairs  need  it  in  the  complex  commercial  situations 
that  arise,  and  most  of  all  those  to  whom  great  national  and 
international  interests  are  committed  are  in  due  need  of  that 
deliberate  and  discriminating  judgment  and  that  steadfast- 
ness of  thought  and  purpose  by  which  alone  they  can  hope 
to  meet  the  high  demands  of  statesmanship. 


106  Timely  Topics 

It  is,  however,  in  the  Crises  of  history  that  a  nation's 
legislators  must  stand  and  act  on  the  level,  unmoved  by  all 
disturbing  influences,  characterized,  first  and  last,  by  sound 
sense  and  sanity,  as  clear-headed,  hard-headed  and  level- 
headed men. 

Students  of  the  world's  civic  life  and  the  processes  of 
governments  as  now  administered  are  re-opening  the  ques- 
tion raised  so  long  ago  as  the  days  of  De  Tocqueville, 
whether  Democracy,  after  all,  as  illustrated  in  America,  is 
a  successful  theory  of  Civic  Rule  based  as  it  is  and  must  be 
on  the  character  and  intelligence  of  the  people  at  large.  Mr. 
Bryce,  despite  his  optimistic  treatment  of  American  politics, 
starts  the  question  as  to  "How  far  American  Experience  is 
Available  for  Europe,"  and  not  infrequently  strikes  a  note 
of  warning  as  he  discusses  "The  Future  of  Political  Insti- 
tutions" with  his  eye  fixed  on  America  as  an  object  lesson, 
on  "the  clouds  that  hang  on  the  horizon." 

One  thing  is  clear,  and  that  is,  in  popular  government  as 
nowhere  else,  just  because  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
at  large,  this  indispensable  temper  of  sanity  must  prevail 
if  so  be  the  ends  of  democratic  rule  are  to  be  realized. 
These  ends  are  based  on  normal  principles,  on  temperate 
judgment  and  midway  between  all  forms  of  political  excess, 
a  safe  and  steady  adherence  to  the  level  and  the  line.  If 
Democracy  in  America,  as  De  Tocqueville  treats  it,  is  to 
succeed,  it  can  only  be  brought  about  by  the  agency  of  Level- 
Headed  Americans,  who  "think  straight"  and  act  accord- 
ingly. 


Rational  Reform  107 

RATIONAL  REFORM 

In  an  excellent  Historical  Series,  "Epochs  of  Modern 
History,"  one  of  the  eighteen  volumes  is  entitled,  "The 
Epoch  of  Reform."  In  a  similar  series  of  eight  volumes, 
"Epochs  of  English  History,"  one  is  under  the  caption 
"Tudors  and  the  Reformation"  (1488-1603),  known  as  the 
English  Reformation  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  So  we 
have  a  series  entitled  "American  Reformers,"  while  such 
additional  series  as  "American  Religious  Leaders,"  "The 
Great  Educators,"  "English  Radical  Leaders,"  "English 
Men  of  Action,"  "The  Heroes  of  the  Nations,"  "The 
World's  Workers  Series"  and  "Makers  of  Modern 
Thought,"  represent  in  biographical  and  historical  form 
the  great  Reform  Movements  of  earlier  and  later  eras,  of 
America  and  Europe  and  the  civilized  world  at  large.  In 
fact,  a  careful  study  of  the  world's  history  reveals  the  pres- 
ence of  what  may  be  called,  Periodical  Reforms,  following 
contrasted  periods  of  declension  and  retrogression — the  ebb 
and  flow  of  national  and  international  life,  manifest  in 
church  and  state,  in  social  and  industrial  life,  in  the  sphere 
of  education,  and,  indeed,  in  every  phase  of  human  activity 
of  a  corporate  character. 

We  are  living  in  an  age  when  by  the  phenomenal  condi- 
tions of  the  time,  reformation  is  and  must  continue  to  be  a 
dominant  issue,  if  not,  in  fact,  the  most  commanding  issue 
at  hand.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the  first  importance  that  the 
method  and  spirit  and  ultimate  purpose  of  such  reform 
should  be  a  right  one,  and,  as  such,  conducive  to  the  highest 
ends.     That  such  characteristics  have  so  largely  failed  to 


108  Timely  Topics 

appear  in  the  course  of  Reformation  is  one  of  the  most 
damaging  and  discouraging  facts  of  history.  Some  of  these 
essential  characteristics  may  be  emphasized. 

I.  The  Reform  must  be  Demanded. 

There  must  be  a  real  call  for  change  and  betterment,  the 
expression  of  a  natural  evolution  of  events — a  call  so  loud 
and  insistent  that  it  cannot  safely  remain  unheeded,  ad- 
dressed to  every  separate  individual  and  to  the  nation  at 
large.  The  great  Reformation  of  the  Sixteenth  Century 
has  had  in  English  History  its  conspicuous  place  just  be- 
cause it  had  such  a  clear  and  clarion  call  that  no  opposing 
influence  could  possibly  ignore  or  silence  it,  and  such  have 
been  the  most  significant  Reformation  movements  of  the 
world.  Reformations  cannot  be  initiated  at  random  and  for 
personal  ends,  but  are  an  inevitable  resultant  of  antecedent 
and  existing  conditions. 

II.  The  Reform  must  be  Feasible. 

It  must,  at  all  hazards,  be  within  the  province  not  only  of 
the  possible,  but  the  highly  probable.  Its  realization  must 
be  so  definitely  practicable  as  to  make  it  well  worth  the 
effort  to  compass  and  complete  it.  The  necessary  agencies 
for  its  fulfillment  must  be  at  hand  or  known  to  be  accessible 
and  procurable.  It  is  a  biblical  injunction  that  he  who 
builds  a  tower  must  count  the  cost  beforehand,  and  that  he 
who  goes  to  war  must  estimate  to  the  full  the  ability  of  his 
foe  before  entering  on  the  field,  and  it  is  a  natural  and 
common  sense  injunction  that  however  desirable  a  reforma- 
tion may  be  its  feasibility  must  be  attested  before  future 
action  is  initiated.  History  is  replete  with  gross  violations 
of  this  cardinal  principle,  whereby  life  and  treasure  have 


Rational  Reform  109 

been  ruthlessly  sacrificed  and  the  very  ends  of  reform  made 
impossible.  It  is  by  such  ill-advised  procedure  that  the 
course  of  history  has  often  been  retarded  and  even  reversed 
and  the  serious  burden  imposed  upon  coming  generations  to 
make  amends  for  the  errors  of  their  predecessors. 

III.  The  Reform  must  be  Gradational. 

Men  and  nations  cannot  pass  at  once  or  by  rapid  stages 
from  one  condition  to  another,  from  the  dominance  of  evil 
to  the  dominance  of  good.  All  successful  transitions  are  as 
such  progressive  and  move  steadily  on  by  the  law  of  suc- 
cession. Long  established  wrongs  are  not  easily  or  sud- 
denly righted,  and  if  the  attempt  is  made  forcibly  to  dis- 
place them  and  rectify  them,  violent  reaction  will  inevitably 
ensue.  It  is  in  the  light  of  this  fact  that  a  recent  historian 
writes,  "The  moment  of  collision  between  an  old  and  a  new 
principle  of  human  action  is  a  revolution."  It  is  also  in 
the  light  of  this  fact  that  the  historian  McCarthy,  in  de- 
scribing the  change  of  the  English  Ministry  of  Disraeli  after 
the  fall  of  the  Gladstone  administration,  speaks  of  it  as  a 
"conservative  change"  whereby  the  ends  he  was  seeking 
could  be  best  subserved  by  moderate  measures.  The  same 
historian  gives  us  chapters  under  the  significant  titles  "Re- 
form and  Storm"  and  "Reform  in  a  Flood,"  "Reform 
Agitation."  When  many  of  the  public  leaders  in  England 
were  carried  off  their  feet  by  the  "rush  of  reforming 
energy,"  when  some  of  the  most  serious  problems  of  English 
History  were  presssing  for  solution,  when  temperate  judg- 
ments were  demanded  and  the  fate  of  the  nation  depended 
on  moderation  and  sobriety,  impulse  and  fanaticism  were 
in  evidence.     "Levellers"  and  the  "Root  and  Branch  So- 


no  Timely  Topics 

ciety"  were  dominant  and  in  the  name  of  Reform  the  demo- 
lition of  all  that  was  stable  was  threatened.  Reformation, 
by  its  very  nature,  must  be  what  DeQuincy  was  wont  to 
call  "sequacious,"  following  the  law  of  gradation  from 
better  to  better  conditions  until  the  final  consummation  is 
reached.  It  is  the  infraction  of  this  fundamental  law  that 
is  the  bane  and  peril  of  movements  now  occurring  under 
the  name  of  Reform — Anarchism,  Communism,  Nihilism, 
rampant  Socialism,  the  primacy  of  the  proletariat,  whereby 
the  vision  of  Solomon  is  evident,  "servants  upon  horses  and 
princes  walking  as  servants."  "Hasten  slowly"  is  still  a 
vital  principle. 

IV.  The  Reform  must  be  Catholic  in  Spirit,  a  generous 
and  disinterested  effort  to  secure  the  high  ends  it  is  seeking. 
At  no  point  in  the  Reformation  History  of  the  world  is  the 
indictment  so  patent  as  here.  It  was  this  indictment  that 
justified  Madame  Roland  in  her  exclamation,  "O  Liberty, 
how  many  crimes  are  committed  in  thy  name !"  So  it  may 
be  said  of  Reform.  The  record  of  civil  and  religious  per- 
secution from  the  days  of  the  pagan  Emperors  to  the  French 
Revolution  is  a  startling  commentary  on  this  error  of 
Bigoted  Reform.  Intolerance  has  been  the  emphatic  evil 
attendant  upon  most  of  the  Reformation  Movements  of  the 
world,  and  so  account  for  the  slow  progress  they  have  made 
in  the  course  of  history.  It  was  not  till  1689,  far  along  in 
English  History,  that  any  such  thing  as  a  Toleration  Act 
was  officially  ratified,  nor  did  the  intemperate  and  ungra- 
cious spirit  cease  to  prevail  in  church  and  state  at  that  date, 
and  is  at  this  writing  revealing  its  unwholesome  influence. 
The  representatives  of  every  new  administration  in  gov- 


Rational  Reform  in 

ernment  propose  remedial  measures  which  they  awow  will 
cure  all  the  maladies  of  the  time.  Party  platforms  bristle 
with  schemes  of  betterment  sure  to  settle  at  once  all  the 
pending  problems  of  the  day.  Every  industrial,  civil  and 
social  organization  has  its  absolutely  successful  solvent  for 
every  public  wrong.  The  spectacle,  were  it  not  so  serious, 
is  nothing  less  than  ludicrous,  where  purely  fanciful  pana- 
ceas are  offered  in  evidence  and  projects  for  reform  assume 
the  most  fantastic  and  irrational  phases.  It  is  well  within 
the  truth  to  say  that  the  method  and  spirit  by  which  and  in 
which  a  Reform  is  initiated  and  conducted  are  as  vital  a 
factor  in  its  ultimate  success  as  is  the  Reform  itself  in  its 
inherent  principle.  Many  a  righteous,  desirable  and  feasible 
Reformation  has  been  nullified  or  impaired  by  the  objec- 
tionable spirit  in  which  it  has  been  conducted.  As  above 
stated,  we  are  living  in  an  era  of  Reform.  It  is  imperative 
that  it  be  temperate  in  its  true  and  governing  spirit. 

Such,  in  brief,  are  some  of  the  salient  characteristics  of 
Rational  as  distinct  from  Irrational  Reform — that  it  should 
be  Demanded,  Feasible,  Gradational  and  Catholic  in  Spirit 
— a  Reform  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  the  prophecy  and 
promise  of  the  Golden  Age. 

If  this  be  so,  it  is  evident  that  those  on  whom  the  respon- 
sibility of  conducting  a  Reform  rests  should  be  men  of 
sound  judgment,  able  to  discriminate  between  things  that 
differ,  between  the  practicable  and  visionary,  correctly  to 
interpret  the  "signs  of  the  times,"  familiar  with  antecedent 
history  and  the  bearing  of  past  events  on  present  issues,  and 
of  such  temper  as  to  attract  to  their  leadership  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men,  on  the  broad  basis  of  unselfish  and 
mutual  interest. 


H2  Timely  Topics 

Despite  all  that  is  adverse  and  alarming,  world  conditions 
are,  in  the  main,  slowly  advancing  and  as  the  age  now  at 
hand  is  by  necessity  an  Age  of  Reform,  every  man  has  his 
place  and  part  in  the  general  movement  toward  better  con- 
ditions, until  there  shall  be  seen  the  dawning,  at  least,  of 
that  "far  off  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  creation 
moves" — the  Re-formation  of  the  World. 

INTERNATIONAL  LEAGUES 

Some  form  of  The  Federation  of  States,  the  Confedera- 
tion of  Commonwealths,  is  not  only  conceded  to  be  desir- 
able, but  it  is  a  general  world  demand  as  one  of  the  out- 
growths of  the  late  war.  The  successive  attempts  that  have 
been  made  since  the  era  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars  to  constitute 
some  such  Compact  is  proof  in  point  of  its  desirability  and 
necessity.  Dual  and  Triple  and  Quadruple  Alliances,  various 
forms  of  an  Entente  among  Associated  Powers,  divers 
schemes  of  federation  in  Church  and  State,  have  all  been 
attempts,  more  or  less  ingenuous,  to  solve  this  international 
problem,  the  main  difficulty  having  been  that  the  old  doc- 
trine of  The  Balance  of  Power  has  been  the  central  prin- 
ciple and  has  succeeded  in  frustrating  the  ultimate  purpose 
of  such  Coalitions. 

The  Congress  of  Westphalia  in  1648  is  said  to  have  been 
"the  first  time  the  representatives  of  many  states  had  met 
for  a  great  general  purpose."  The  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
in  the  time  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  has  also  been  called  "the 
first  of  the  long  series  of  Projects  of  perpetual  peace,"  fore- 
runner of  a  similar  Project  in  171 3  of  The  Abbe  de  St. 


International  Leagues  113 

Pierre.  In  1813  we  come  to  the  historic  Project  of  Alex- 
ander I  of  Russia,  followed  by  the  First  Treaty  of  Paris, 
the  Congress  of  Vienna,  the  Second  Treaty  of  Paris,  and 
the  Holy  Alliance  of  181 5,  a  notable  series  of  Covenants 
and  Pacts,  more  or  less  comprehensive,  by  which  the  attempt 
at  least  was  made  to  solve  this  International  Problem,  by 
a  great  all-inclusive  Concordat,  assuring  the  peace  of  the 
civilized  world.  On  through  the  last  Century  these  Projects 
have  been  revived,  and  divers  forms  of  Conventions  and 
Alliances  submitted  to  the  same  great  end  of  what  Abbe  de 
St.  Pierre  called  "perpetual  peace,"  such  as  A  League  of 
North  European  and  South  European  Peoples,  that  of  all 
European  and  all  Asiatic  Peoples,  of  all  Slavic  and  all  Latin 
Peoples,  or  that  of  a  world-wide  racial  Alliance  of  all  the 
White  Peoples  as  contrasted  with  the  Colored  Populations 
of  Asia  and  Africa  and  America,  North  and  South,  and  so 
on  down  to  the  latest  Project,  The  League  of  Nations  estab- 
lished at  Versailles. 

In  any  case,  the  time  has  come  when  national  isolation 
even  in  the  most  unselfish  and  legitimate  sense  can  no  longer 
be  defended,  when  every  form  of  nationalism  must  be  suf- 
ficiently modified  as  to  recognize  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
all  related  nations.  The  Biblical  doctrine  that  "no  man  liveth 
to  himself"  has  been  broadened  as  to  apply  equally  fully 
to  every  separate  people. 

The  primary  objects  of  such  an  alliance  of  States  may  be 
said  to  be 

1.  To  insure  and  preserve  International  Peace,  and,  in- 
deed, the  Peace  of  the  World. 

2.  To  protect  and  extend  all  common  international  in- 


H4  Timely  Topics 

terests  in  so  far  as  they  are  based  on  justice  and  the  mutual 
relation  of  State  to  State. 

3.  To  make  a  substantial  contribution  to  the  Progress  of 
Civilization  in  general,  founded  as  it  must  be  on  interna- 
tional comity. 

These  objects  conceded  as  desirable,  the  problem  has  been 
and  is  now  in  a  special  sense  what  the  particular  Type  of 
such  a  Coalition  shall  be — how  constituted  and  how  main- 
tained, so  as  to  secure  the  well-being  of  all  its  members, 
while  still  jealously  guarding  the  rights  peculiar  to  each.  The 
League  of  Nations  recently  established  in  Europe,  including, 
with  but  few  exceptions,  all  the  civilized  countries  of  the 
world,  is  the  most  pronounced  attetmpt  as  yet  made  to  solve 
the  problem  and  to  secure  these  primary  objects  so  strongly 
desired.  Entirely  aside  from  the  substantial  merits  of  such 
a  World  League,  and  they  are  many  and  weighty,  the  two 
leading  objections  that  have  been  made  to  it  either  as  a 
theory  or  a  practical  project  are 

1.  That  it  infringes  too  closely  upon  the  Inherent  Auton- 
omy of  the  separate  members,  by  which  their  national  char- 
acter and  efficiency  are  compromised. 

2.  That  it  is,  in  its  World-wide  Area,  too  Comprehensive 
and  Complex  to  make  anything  like  unity  and  community 
of  action  possible  or  probable,  that  the  points  of  view  of 
Northern  and  Southern  Europe,  of  Asiatic  and  European, 
of  Teuton,  Slav  and  Latin,  of  the  Orient  and  Occident,  are 
too  diverse  and  distant  to  admit  of  a  common  understanding 
and  absolute  concordance  of  action. 

"That  East  is  West,"  it  is  agreed,  may  be  admissible  by 
poetic  license,  but  not  in  actual  political  relations.     These 


International  Leagues  115 

objections,  it  may  be  conceded,  have  a  degree  of  solidity, 
especially  that  of  complexity,  arising  from  so  wide  an  area 
as  the  world  itself  and  in  the  light  of  radical  difference  of 
race  and  place.  It  is  just  here,  therefore,  where  the  question 
naturally  arises  whether  there  are  no  other  forms  of  Inter- 
national Leagues  that  may  secure  the  main  benefits,  at  least, 
of  a  world-wide  Alliance  and  yet  be  free  from  some  of  the 
difficulties  that  necessarily  attach  themselves  to  so  compre- 
hensive a  compact. 

Two  of  these  are  well  worth  consideration : 
I.  A  League  of  all  English-speaking  peoples,  including 
the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  Canada,  Australia  and 
other  states,  a  large  and  organically  coherent  group  of 
peoples.  If  it  be  asked  what  the  Grounds  are  of  such  an 
Alliance,  the  answer  is  obvious  and  significant. 

1.  These  States  have  a  Common  Historic  Origin  and  De- 
velopment, by  which  they  are  undeniably  unified  and  of 
necessity  sharers  in  a  common  destiny.  It  has  been  truth- 
fully said  "that  England  and  America  are  united  by  a  com- 
mon tradition,  extending  back  through  centuries,  that  Amer- 
ican Free  Institutions  took  form  from  the  institutions  of 
England."  This  is  well-called  "The  Great  Tradition"  which 
it  well  behooves  the  people  to  preserve.  When  Gladstone 
spoke  of  "our  kin  beyond  the  sea"  he  had  this  blood  rela- 
tionship in  mind. 

2.  These  States  have  a  Common  Language  and  Litera- 
ture, the  vital  import  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate. 
It  is  an  element  so  deep  and  all  pervasive  as  to  rank  right 
next  to  blood  kinship  itself  in  its  practical  potency.  That 
these  peoples  all  speak  "the  tongue  that  Shakespeare  spoke" 


1 1 6  Timely  Topics 

knits  their  corporate  lives  with  bands  of  steel  and  makes  it 
as  unsafe  as  it  is  unwise  to  ignore  or  underrate  it. 

3.  These  States  have  a  Common  Protestant  Faith. — "The 
Faith  and  Morals  hold  that  Milton  held,"  the  great  re- 
ligious legacy  of  Reformation  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 
The  Puritan  spirit  of  the  Commonwealth  is  theirs  in  essence. 
It  is  when  Milton  writes  "Of  Reformation  in  England"  that 
he  unifies  the  Protestant  interests  of  England  and  America, 
and  in  his  "Areopagitica"  contends  for  a  Free  English  Press 
in  all  English  States,  as  Burke  before  the  British  Parliament 
was  contending  for  nothing  less  than  an  Anglo-American 
unity. 

4.  These  States  have  Common  Interests  and  Ideals.  The 
English  Historians,  Green  and  Freeman,  press  the  point  of 
the  destiny  of  England  and  America  as  one,  for  the  reali- 
zation of  which  concordant  action  is  needed.  These  Com- 
mon Interests  are  as  varied  as  the  functions  of  a  state — 
political,  economic,  industrial  and  social — affecting  every 
phase  of  national  life. 

Such  is  the  English  League  of  an  international  order,  that 
as  yet  has  never  been  tested  in  all  its  inherent  potency,  by 
which  the  evils  of  separate  functions  might  be  avoided  and 
all  the  benefits  of  corporate  action  secured.  It  is  clear  to 
any  careful  observer  of  the  course  of  events  that  this  co- 
fraternity  among  all  of  English  name  is  more  of  a  fact  than 
a  theory  at  present,  and  is  forcing  itself  upon  the  attention 
of  the  modern  world  as  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times  and 
full  of  promise  to  the  nations. 

II.  There  is  another  International  League  with  which  it  is 
well  worth  the  while  of  modern  statesmen  to  reckon,  The 


International  Leagues  117 

League  of  all  Teutonic  peoples,  in  which  larger  and  more 
varied  Alliance  all  English-speaking  peoples  are  included 
and  such  other  States  as  Germany  and  the  Scandinavian  peo- 
ples of  Northern  Europe,  Norway  and  Sweden  and  Iceland, 
and  still  further  south  the  States  of  Holland  and  Denmark, 
such  countries  as  Austria  and  Switzerland,  possessing  in  a 
mixed  population  a  distinct  and  large  Teutonic  element. 
That  these  peoples  should  not  all  be  unified  to  the  common 
ends  of  civilization  is  well  nigh  a  crime.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  tragic  to  see,  as  we  have  seen  of  late,  two  such  great 
Teutonic  nations  as  England  and  Germany,  foreordained  to 
amity  and  common  function,  arrayed  against  each  other  on 
the  battlefields  of  Continental  Europe,  nor  will  this  problem 
of  Internationalism  be  rightly  settled  until  such  Titanic 
Teutons  as  these  combine  and  interact  for  the  same  great 
ends. 

Here  again  if  we  inquire  for  the  Grounds  or  Reasons  for 
such  a  League,  we  may  answer  in  practically  the  same  terms 
as  those  presented  in  the  union  of  English  Peoples. 

1.  These  Teutonic  States  have  a  Common  Historic  An- 
cestry, traced  back  directly  to  the  great  Teutonic  tribes  of 
Northern  Continental  Europe,  where  Angles  and  Saxons 
lived  before  the  great  migrations  of  the  Fifth  century.  Mr. 
Freeman,  in  his  suggestive  book  "The  Three  English 
Homes,"  locates  the  first  of  these  English  homes  on  the 
shores  of  the  Continent  midway  between  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  Denmark,  while  all  distinction  between  Ger- 
manic peoples  and  English  were  merged  in  one  great  Teu- 
tonic stock. 

2.  These   Teutonic    States   have   a   Common    Linguistic 


n8  Timely  Topics 

History,  the  main  distinction  being  that  the  English  stock 
is  of  the  Low  Germanic  order  rather  than  that  of  the  High 
German,  closely  akin  to  the  Dutch  Peoples  of  Holland. 
The  linguistic  basis  and  background,  however,  are  one  and 
the  same,  diverging  only  in  subsequent  years  as  the  Ger- 
manic peoples  retained  their  continental  home  and  the 
migrating  Angles  and  Saxons  became  a  transcontinental  or 
insular  people,  so  that  it  might  in  truth  be  said  that  we  speak 
the  tongue  that  Goethe  spoke. 

3.  These  States  have  a  Common  Protestant  Faith,  as- 
suming in  Germany  a  specifically  Lutheran  type  as  distinct 
from  the  Anglican  and  Genevan,  but  still  a  veritable  Protes- 
tant faith  as  distinct  from  that  of  Rome.  The  great  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  of  the  English  Reformation  were  those  of 
Martin  Luther,  it  being  a  significant  fact  that  Luther's 
version  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  King  James'  English  ver- 
sion are  practically  contemporaneous,  the  basis,  respectively, 
of  modern  German  and  modern  English  as  they  are  now 
developing. 

4.  Moreover,  it  may  in  truth  be  added  that  these  Teutonic 
States  may  now  be  said  to  have  Common  Political  Ideals, 
despite  any  secondary  differences  of  civic  order  and  admin- 
istration, whatever  hitherto  may  have  been  the  difference 
of  civic  polity  between  the  German  Monarchy  and  the  Lim- 
ited Monarchy  of  England  and  the  Representative  Govern- 
ment of  America.  One  of  the  phenomenal  results  of  the 
late  war  has  been  to  minimize  and  indeed  to  eliminate  these 
differences  and  place  these  Teutonic  Peoples  wherever  found 
on  a  common  democratic  plane,  based,  as  to  their  govern- 
ments, on  the  final  rule  of  the  people  and  seeking  as  their 
ultimate  aim  the  common  weal. 


International  Leagues  119 

Such  are  the  Grounds  on  which  this  Teutonic  Alliance  is 
based,  and  when  this  compact  is  finally  formed,  modern 
civilization  will  feel  the  vital  and  beneficent  effect  of  it  in 
every  phase  and  function  of  its  being,  an  Alliance  broad 
enough  to  include  every  desirable  civic  interest  and  potent 
enough  to  hold  in  check  every  agency  hostile  to  the  world's 
good. 

Such  are  the  two  International  and  Interracial  Leagues 
yet  to  be  constituted  and  applied,  feasible  by  reason  of  their 
natural  and  national  relationship,  free  from  those  complexi- 
ties and  essential  differences  that  obtain  in  other  types  of 
alliance,  each  member  able  to  retain  its  political  individu- 
ality, while  also  able  to  combine  with  its  colleagues  for  the 
attainment  of  great  international  ends.  With  a  complete 
understanding  as  to  where  they  agree  and  where  they  differ, 
willing  on  behalf  of  the  general  good  to  surrender  all  that 
is  non-essential,  they  can  unify  their  energies  in  fullest 
measure,  being  on  friendly  terms  with  any  other  Inter- 
national Alliance,  Asiatic,  Slavic  or  Latinic,  it  being  clearly 
understood  that  no  compact  whatsoever,  however  normal  or 
potent,  can  effect  its  ends,  save  on  the  basis  of  international 
honor,  faith  and  good  will.  It  is  by  reason  of  the  absence 
of  these  cardinal  conditions  that  the  pages  of  history  are 
replete  with  Political  Pacts,  doomed  from  the  outset  to 
failure,  and,  once  again,  as  ever,  we  come  back  to  the  indis- 
pensable condition  of  any  alliance,  national  or  international 
— Trust  in  God  and  Faith  in  Man,  Virtue  and  Honor  and 
Good-will. 

For  some  such  League  of  Nations  this  war-stricken  world 
is  waiting  with  tragic  interest  and  impatience.     It  was  this 


120  Timely  Topics 

that  old  Walt  Whitman  had  in  mind  as  he  penned  in  his 
own  way  "The  Prophecy  of  a  New  Era." 

"I  see  tremendous  entrances  and  exits,  new  combinations,  the  solidarity 

of  nations, 
I  see  that  force  advancing  with  irresistible  power  on  the  world's  stage, 
I  see  men  marching  and  countermarching  by  swift  millions, 
I  see  the  landmark  of  European  kings  removed, 
I  see  this  day  the  People  beginning  their  landmarks   (all  others  give 

way)  : 
Never  were  such  sharp  questions  ask'd  as  this  day, 
Never  was  average  man,  his  soul,  more  energetic,  more  like  a  God; 
What   whispers   are   these,  O   lands,   running  ahead   of   you,   passing 

under  the  seas? 
Are  all  nations  communing?    is  there  going  to  be  but  one  heart  to  the 

globe  ? 
Is  humanity  forming  en  masse?     for,  lo,  tyrants  tremble,  crowns  grow 

dim, 
The  earth,  restive,  confronts  a  new  era." 

This  is  the  great  world  movement  that  is  now  under  way. 
The  bugle  is  sounding,  the  ranks  are  fast  forming,  and  woe 
will  it  be  for  that  nation  that  under  the  plea  of  a  selfish 
nationalism  fails  to  fall  in  line  with  this  imposing  proces- 
sion of  peoples  organized  to  preserve  the  peace  and  promote 
the  progress  of  the  world. 


IV 


THE  PURITAN  LEGACY  TO  AMERICA 

In  view  of  the  recent  Tercentenary  Celebration  of  the 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  the  shores  of  New  England,  it 
is  fitting  that  this  epochal  event  be  commemorated  by  em- 
phasizing the  contributions  that  have  been  made  by  this 
pioneer  people  to  modern  civilization  in  America. 

As  America  was  discovered  by  Spaniards  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  it  may  be  said  to  have  been  re-discovered  by  Eng- 
lishmen in  the  seventeenth,  and  so  established  on  firm  foun- 
dations that  Plymouth  assumes  a  significance  that  cannot 
be  claimed  by  San  Salvador,  and  the  year  1620  signally 
surpasses  that  of  1492. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  connection  to  draw  close  distinc- 
tions between  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  as  to  their  respective 
numbers,  dates  of  colonization,  points  of  departure  and  of 
settlement,  and  ecclesiastical  relations  to  the  Anglican 
Church.  Whether  few  or  many,  settling  earlier  or  later  in 
the  century,  in  Southern  or  Northern  Massachusetts,  whether 
Presbyterians  or  Congregationalists,  absolute  Separatists 
from  the  English  Church  or  Non-conformists  within  its 
nominal  jurisdiction,  they  all  were  a  body  of  colonists,  leav- 
ing the  shores  of  the  Mother  Country  for  common  reasons 
and  for  the  same  great  ends,  and  finally  fused  into  one 
corporate  New  England  family,  the  First  Americans  in 
name  and  mission.     These  Colonists,  it  must  never  be  for- 

121 


122  Timely  Topics 

gotten,  were  the  nation's  founders — laying  the  basis  of  it 
and  building  the  first  superstructure,  as  best  they  could,  and 
building  better  than  they  knew.  As  the  historian  Green 
speaks  of,  "The  Making  of  England,"  these  pioneers  were 
the  Makers  of  America,  settlers  indeed,  constructionists 
in  the  strictest  sense,  so  that  the  anniversary  of  their  settle- 
ment well  might  be  called,  Founders'  Day,  the  significant 
symbol  of  their  building  being  a  rock. 

I.  Their  specific  Contributions  to  modern  American  his- 
tory and  life  may  be  studied. 

i .  Their  first  Contribution  was  clearly  within  the  province 
of  Religion.  It  was  by  reason  of  long  continued  and  in- 
creasingly rigorous  religious  persecutions  that  both  Pil- 
grims and  Puritans  left  their  native  land.  Never  before 
or  since  has  there  been  a  people  more  completely  under  the 
supremacy  of  the  Supernatural.  In  their  view,  any  govern- 
ment entitled  to  call  itself  such  was,  first  and  last,  theocratic, 
under  the  direct  guidance  of  God,  whatever  its  special  ap- 
pellation might  be  in  the  political  usage  of  the  day.  These 
colonists  were  the  direct  descendants  of  the  English  Refor- 
mation of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  believed  in  the  Bible  as 
the  Book  of  all  Books,  and  brought  the  historic  King  James 
Version  of  1607-11  with  them  as  they  set  sail  from 
Plymouth  in  1620.  True,  indeed,  some  of  them  were  mere 
"adventurers,"  as  we  are  so  often  reminded  by  their  critics, 
men  "broken  in  purse  and  principles,"  but  the  great  majority 
of  them  were  God-fearing,  leaving  their  homes  to  "escape 
the  pressing  danger  to  godliness."  As  we  are  told  by  the 
historian  Hurst,  "To  enjoy  the  exercise  of  conscience  was 
the  Pilgrims'  one  passion."     So  potent  and  pervasive  was 


The  Puritan  Legacy  to  America  123 

this  religious  element,  that  not  only  officials  in  the  com- 
munity but  all  others  must  be  in  personal  connection  with 
the  church,  if  so  be  good  government  might  be  assured. 
Here  it  is  that  the  historian  Green  makes  the  significant 
statement  "that  the  history  of  English  progress  ...  on 
its  moral  and  spiritual  sides  has  been  the  history  of  Puritan- 
ism." The  Church  was  the  central  institution  of  the  colony, 
where  these  sturdy  Covenanters  convened  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  allegiance  to  God  as  the  one  supreme  Ruler 
of  all  peoples. 

2.  Closely  connected  with  this  initial  Contribution  was 
that  of  Education,  the  Church  and  the  School  being  coor- 
dinated so  closely  that  they  were  regarded  as  contemplating 
the  same  great  ends,  no  real  educational  regime  being  pos- 
sible, as  they  concluded,  apart  from  its  vital  relation  to 
religious  needs.  It  would  require  some  stretch  of  the  his- 
toric imagination  to  conceive  of  a  colonial  controversy  at 
that  time  over  the  question  of  the  Bible  and  the  School. 
These  were  interchangeable  terms,  common  agents  of  educa- 
tion. Nor  was  this  educational  system  confined  exclusively 
to  what  we  call,  the  Common  School,  for  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  children  of  the  community  in  the  early  stages  of  their 
training,  but  soon  developed  a  higher  and  broader  func- 
tion— a  collegiate  and  even  university  type,  the  foundation 
of  Harvard  in  1636  being  but  a  decade  and  a  half  after 
the  founding  of  the  colony.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that 
not  a  few  of  these  "common  people,"  so-called,  were  from 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  that,  as  we  are  told,  "At  the 
close  of  Elizabeth's  reign  (1603)  the  tone  of  the  univer- 
sities was  hotly  puritan."    It  was  these  ardent  advocates  of 


124  Timely  Topics 

education,  higher  and  lower,  who  set  the  form  for  all  phases 
of  Colonial  education,  even  though,  in  accordance  with  the 
general  character  and  needs  of  the  time,  it  was  elementary 
training  that  was  most  in  demand,  the  preparation  for  the 
everyday  life  of  a  pioneer  people. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that,  in  the  early  years  of  settle- 
ment, all  education  was,  in  a  sense,  elementary,  the  univer- 
sity, so-called,  expressing  itself,  as  at  Harvard,  in  the  neces- 
sarily modest  type  of  the  school  or  academy,  having  in  it, 
however,  by  definite  intention,  the  "Promise  and  Potency" 
of  advanced  teaching.  These  pioneers  in  all  they  did  had 
an  eye  on  the  future  and  legislated  for  its  possible  needs. 

3.  The  Political  Contribution  of  the  Puritans  was,  also, 
a  vital  part  of  their  religious  and  educational  aims.  It  was, 
indeed,  the  desire  for  civil  freedom  and  the  resultant  de- 
termination to  secure  it  that  was  the  original  occasion  of 
their  emigration.  What  they  called,  Popular  Rights,  which 
meant,  first  of  all,  political  rights,  was  their  primary  pur- 
pose and  need  as  a  struggling  colony,  the  escape  from  that 
civic  oppression  which  they  had  so  long  and  patiently  suf- 
fered. "The  Petition  of  Rights"  which  they  presented  to 
the  Parliament  of  Charles  the  First  in  1628,  and  which  the 
King  reluctantly  granted,  was  anticipated  in  1620.  These 
sturdy  settlers  were  called  "Independents"  in  every  sense  and 
sphere  of  activity,  and  were  the  forerunners  of  the  heroes 
of  1776,  in  issuing  a  Declaration  of  Independence,  insist- 
ing on  liberty  as  one  of  their  "inalienable  rights,"  that  all 
men  were  created  "free."  Nor  was  their  freedom  purely 
political,  but  an  essential  part  of  their  religious  belief  and 
life.    As  Mrs.  Hemans  tells  us,  "Freedom  to  worship  God" 


The  Puritan  Legacy  to  America  125 

was  what  they  sought,  "faith's  pure  shrine,"  at  the  foot 
of  which  they  might  safely  kneel.  Though  the  Pilgrims 
believed  in  no  ecclesiastical  connection  of  Church  and  State, 
as  it  obtained  in  England,  they  did  believe  in  the  real  and 
vital  relation  of  Christianity  and  Civics,  so  that  modern 
historians,  in  treating  of  the  Puritan  state,  are  obliged  to 
treat  it  in  terms  of  a  strictly  religious  relationship.  The 
liberty  they  sought  was,  after  all,  a  religious  liberty,  whether 
expressed  in  strictly  religious  thought  and  life  or  in  the 
practical  province  of  politics.  The  English  Reformation 
meant  to  them,  as  it  historically  meant,  a  civil  as  well  as 
a  religious  reformation,  and  no  close  distinctions  were  to 
be  pressed  between  the  two  spheres  of  human  activity.  It 
is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  Puritan  state  was  a 
Protestant  state,  as  opposed  to  the  civil  tyranny  of  Roman- 
ism, and  it  is  here,  also,  that  the  dominant  influence  of  Cal- 
vinism is  evident. 

It  was,  as  the  historian  Green  states  it,  "with  the  belief 
of  the  Calvinist  that  there  went  necessarily  a  high  and  higher 
sense  of  political  order,"  "a  devotion  to  an  authority  higher 
and  more  sacred  than  that  of  kings."  In  Augustinian 
phrase,  the  state  was  a  "Civitas  Dei,"  a  city  of  God,  on 
earth,  where  laws  were  to  be  administered  on  Christian  prin- 
ciples for  Christian  ends. 

4.  The  Industrial  and  Social  Contribution  of  the  Puritans 
must  also  be  acknowledged.  Social  Equality  has  been  called 
"the  gift  of  Puritanism  to  English  Politics,"  a  sense  of 
brotherhood,  of  civic  fellowship  and  mutual  interest  here- 
tofore unknown,  in  the  expression  of  which  all  classes  stand 
on  a  common  plane  in  the  eye  of  God  and  man.    It  was  the 


126  Timely  Topics 

Common  Law  and  a  Commonwealth  under  which  they 
lived,  by  which  a  man  was  measured  by  his  manhood  and 
all  rulers  of  the  state  were  understood  to  be  the  servants  of 
the  people.  Moreover,  the  age  was  signally  the  age  of  thrift, 
altogether  unacquainted  with  the  conflict  of  Labor  and 
Capital,  an  age  in  which  every  man  was  a  common  laborer 
and  no  provision  was  made  for  the  idler  and  the  vagrant. 
It  is  just  here  that  we  find  the  explanation  of  the  simple  life 
of  the  time,  the  Golden  Age  of  Household  Economy,  of 
old-fashioned  domesticity,  when  sobriety,  frugality,  plain 
living  and  stability  were  the  characteristics  of  the  time. 
"As  we  conceive  it,"  says  an  English  historian,  "home  was 
the  creation  of  the  Puritan,"  and  it  is  the  home-ly  virtues, 
as  we  signally  call  them,  that  were  the  controlling  virtues 
of  the  time.  It  is  fitting,  indeed,  that  what  is  called,  "Old 
Home  Week,"  as  celebrated  in  New  England,  dates  its 
origin  from  the  colonial  days.  The  laws  of  the  colony  were, 
most  of  all,  what  Wordsworth  calls  "Household  Laws." 

II.  In  the  light  of  these  Contributions,  attention  must  be 
called  to  the  Alleged  Defects  and  Limitations  of  the  Puri- 
tans. One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  modern  his- 
torical criticism  is  that  seen  in  the  wide  diversity  of  view 
that  is  taken  by  different  historians  as  to  what  were  the 
salient  merits  and  defects  of  the  Puritan  character  and  mode 
of  life,  the  views  of  such  writers  as  Fiske  and  Freeman 
and  Neale  and  Green  being  at  such  variance  with  those  of 
Grey  and  Washington  and  others,  while  in  the  pages  of 
Macaulay  we  note  an  apparently  honest  attempt  to  give  them 
merited  praise,  even  though  interspersed  with  caustic  and 
cynical  comment.     The  biography  of  Bunyan  by  Froude  is 


The  Puritan  Legacy  to  America  \2j 

of  special  interest  as  we  mark  how  that  anti-Puritan  and 
liberal  thinker  of  his  day  deals  with  such  a  type  of  char- 
acter as  that  of  Bunyan,  and  his  contributions  to  Puritan 
literature,  that  "victim  of  grace"  as  he  satirically  calls  him, 
while  such  inimical  critics  as  Matthew  Arnold  and  Mr.  Taine 
make  no  concealment  of  their  antipathy  and  resort  for  the 
expression  of  it  to  the  full  vocabulary  of  ridicule. 

i.  As  to  their  Religious  Type,  we  are  told  that  its  most 
prominent  features  are  fanaticism  and  bigotry,  that,  as  the 
Athenians  of  old,  they  are  too  religious,  good  to  the  limit 
of  repulsion,  intolerant  and  persecuting,  the  advocates  of 
witchcraft,  Hebraic  in  the  severity  of  their  morals,  at  war 
with  the  pleasantries  of  life,  revealing,  in  a  word,  what  have 
been  called,  "the  evils  of  dissent." 

2.  In  the  sphere  of  Education,  it  is  alleged,  as  Mr.  Taine 
phrases  it,  "that  the  Puritan  destroys  the  artist,"  that  in  his 
devotion  to  the  material  elements  of  training,  there  is  no 
room  for  the  aesthetic,  for  that  Hellenistic  type  of  culture 
which,  according  to  Arnold,  is  the  final  purpose  of  all  edu- 
cation. Devoid  of  anything  like  a  literary  spirit,  the  writ- 
ings of  these  colonists,  it  is  said,  evince  the  primacy  of  the 
commonplace,  and  exalt  mediocrity  to  a  virtue. 

3.  In  the  sphere  of  Politics,  their  lack  of  deference  to 
kings  and  prelates,  it  is  added,  evinced  itself  in  the  persecu- 
tion of  all  who  differed  from  them  and  simply  changed  one 
form  of  tyranny  for  another,  their  political  intolerance  being 
the  natural  outgrowth  of  their  religious  bigotry,  merging 
the  state  into  the  Church  and  making  the  civil  code  but  a 
revised  edition  of  the  Decalogue. 

4.  So  in  the  Social  Sphere,  it  is  alleged,  we  find  an  utter 


128  Timely  Topics 

lack  of  the  Amenities,  a  rough  and  crude  expression  of 
character  suited,  perhaps,  to  the  cabin  and  the  frontier  life 
of  the  pioneer,  but  quite  out  of  keeping  with  anything  like 
a  standard  of  civilization.  Their  habit,  we  are  told,  was 
mediaeval  and  ascetic,  that  of  the  monastery  and  cloister, 
and  within  the  presence  of  domestic  life  they  so  stressed 
the  principle  of  self-denial  and  restraint  as  to  make  a  virtue 
of  plainness  and  pride  themselves  on  their  privations  and 
struggles. 

Such  are  the  Allegations  and  Indictments  against  the 
Puritan.  Be  it  so.  Granted  that  some  degree  of  intoler- 
ance was  evident  in  their  religious  beliefs  and  life,  that  their 
educational  system  was  singularly  free  from  the  cultural 
character  of  today;  that  civic  freedom  was,  at  times,  stressed 
to  the  burden  of  oppression;  that  they  pushed  sobriety  to 
the  limit  of  asceticism  and  were  economic  and  frugal  to  a 
fault.  Be  it  so,  and  still  we  may  insist  with  emphasis  that 
the  greatest  moral  need  of  the  time  is  the  Puritanic  sense 
of  the  supernatural;  the  conviction  that  education,  in  any 
true  interpretation  of  it,  postulates  the  Puritan  incorpora- 
tion of  Christianity;  that  in  all  the  functions  of  the  state, 
the  dominant  factor  should  be  the  Puritan  type  of  a  civic 
conscience;  and  that  American  domestic  and  social  life 
should  reinstate  and  express,  as  never  before,  the  household 
virtues  of  the  Puritan  home. 

With  all  acknowledged  progress  in  every  sphere  of 
thought  and  service,  in  a  more  liberal  type  of  religious  be- 
lief, in  a  broader  educational  system,  in  the  widening  of  the 
bounds  of  civil  freedom,  and  the  varied  advances  in  the 
industrial   arts   and  social   order,   it   is   still   true,   as   Mr. 


Democracy  on  Trial  129 

Whipple  tells  us,  "that  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  the 
world  owes  to  the  Puritans  has  never  been  fully  paid," 
while  we  are  far  too  apt  to  endorse  those  carping  critics  who 
find  their  keenest  pleasure  at  the  expense  of  these  early- 
colonists.  Their  faults  were  the  faults  of  their  age,  as  ours 
are  those  of  our  age,  while  no  body  of  American  citizens 
has  since  lived  who  were  better  fitted  for  the  needs  of  their 
time  than  were  they  for  their  generation. 

In  these  days  of  reconstruction  in  all  the  spheres  of  life, 
nothing  would  be  fraught  with  richer  results  than  the  recog- 
nition, as  never  before,  of  this  legacy  of  the  Puritans  to 
their  successors,  and  the  reinforcement  of  those  Essential 
Virtues  and  Verities  which  they  have  transmitted  and  which, 
it  must  be  conceded,  constitute  the  basis  of  Society. 

The  principles  that  produced  such  men  as  John  Robin- 
son and  Governor  Winthrop,  Governor  Bradford  and  Roger 
Williams,  Cotton  Mather  and  Thomas  Hooker  and  Howe, 
and  the  later  generation  of  Hampden  and  Cromwell,  Selden 
and  Pym,  Baxter  and  Bunyan  and  Milton,  are  principles 
with  which  every  age  must  reckon,  if  indeed,  it  is  to  fill  the 
place  and  do  the  work  to  which  Providence  has  called  it. 


DEMOCRACY  ON  TRIAL 

In  a  recent  thoughtful  article  of  a  popular  American 
monthly,  the  somewhat  startling  question  is  opened,  'Ts 
Europe  Crumbling?"  in  which  the  author  summons  all  the 
civilized  forces  of  the  modern  world  to  mobilize  for  all 
contingencies,  if  so  be  the  tragic  catastrophe  ever  emerges. 
A  similar  form  of  question  might  be  opened,  Is  representa- 


130  Timely  Topics 

tive  government  crumbling?  Is  democracy  crumbling?  We 
are  told  that  there  is  a  world-wide  movement,  a  "tidal" 
movement,  toward  democratic  rule,  that  it  is  as  irresistible 
as  the  tides,  the  "out-working  of  certain  causes,"  which 
cannot  be  successfully  nullified  or  even  for  any  length  of 
time  be  retarded.  This  is  a  question  that  confronts  every 
thinking  man  and  people  and  demands  deliberate  discussion, 
a  question  forced  upon  us  as  never  before  by  the  dramatic 
developments  of  the  time. 

I.  The  Elements  of  Democratic   Government. 

1.  It  means,  first  and  last,  the  Sovereignty  of  the  People, 
or  of  Public  Opinion,  in  whatever  legitimate  form  it  is  ex- 
pressed. It  means  the  rightful  rule  of  the  majority,  what- 
ever the  type  of  that  majority  in  any  given  nation  or  era 
may  be.  Popular  government  as  that  is  understood  means 
that  with  the  masses  rests  the  final  court  of  appeal.  Even 
though  there  may  result  what  Bryce  calls,  "The  Fatalism  of 
the  Multitude,"  the  multitude  is  on  the  throne.  It  is  a  gov- 
ernment "of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people." 

2.  It  means  Equality  of  Privilege — equal  status,  rights 
and  recompenses,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  an  open  forum  and 
a  fair  field  for  all  disputants.  It  is  here,  if  nowhere  else, 
that  a  real  opportunism  obtains,  the  same  fortune  for  all 
in  the  great  lottery  of  life,  "a  form  of  society,"  as  Lowell 
tells  us,  "in  which  every  man  has  a  chance  and  knows  that 
he  has  it." 

3.  It  means  Freedom,  in  the  well  understood  sense  of 
that  term,  of  speech,  and  of  the  pen,  of  thought,  of  assembly 
and  of  action  within  the  well-established  conditions  of  civil- 
ized life.     Though  all  government  as  such  is  under  law, 


Democracy  on  Trial  131 

Democracy  is  distinctive  as  under  "the  royal  law  of  liberty," 
of  civil  and  social  privilege. 

II.  Hence  a  related  question  emerges,  as  to  Primary 
Postulates  or  Antecedent  Conditions  of  democracy — on 
which  it  is  based  and  by  which  it  is  governed,  in  all  the 
possible  forms  of  its  expression. 

1.  First  of  all,  is  General  National  Morale,  a  possession 
on  the  part  of  any  free  commonwealth  of  what  are  known 
as  the  public  virtues,  as  distinct  from  those  that  obtain  in 
personal  character.  It  assumes  a  common  civic  conscience, 
amenable  to  generally  accepted  moral  dictates,  by  which  ex- 
ternal civic  conduct  is  determined  and  controlled,  revealing 
itself  in  national  honor,  national  integrity,  a  sense  of  civic 
justice,  and  righteousness  in  public  life,  a  recognition  of  the 
presence  and  potency  of  law,  in  fine,  a  theistic  attitude  of 
mind  as  distinct  from  an  absolutely  irreligious,  or  non-re- 
ligious attitude.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  speak  of  a 
Christian  civilization. 

2.  Next  in  order  as  to  Postulates  is  General  National  In- 
telligence— the  possession  of  what  might  be  called,  in  the 
language  of  Locke,  human  understanding — an  ordinary  de- 
gree of  mental  life,  an  average,  everyday  measure  of  knowl- 
edge. At  the  basis  of  a  commonwealth  is  the  common  mind 
— sufficiently  intelligent  and  well-informed  to  comprehend 
in  some  degree  the  kind  of  world  in  which  it  lives,  and  the 
kind  of  government  to  which  it  owes  respect  and  allegiance. 
Common  sense  by  its  very  name  is  a  mental  possession  sup- 
posedly in  possession  of  the  common  people,  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  body  politic  and  social. 

3.  A  further  Postulate  is  found  in  the  Preservation  of  a 


132  Timely  Topics 

distinct  National  Type,  in  any  given  nation  and,  as  such, 
proof  against  loss  or  substantial  impairment.  Every  state 
to  be  consistently  called  democratic  must  have  individuality, 
civic  personality,  a  specific  corporate  character  all  its  own, 
and  safely  above  the  influence  of  denationalizing  elements. 
In  such  a  complex  assemblage  of  discordant  elements  as  the 
old  Dual  Monarchy  of  Austria-Hungary,  any  such  order  as 
a  democratic  regime  would  have  been  impossible.  Its  very 
duality  made  it  undemocratic  and  incapable  of  national 
fusion.  One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  confronting 
the  reorganization  of  Central  Europe  on  anything  like  a 
democratic  basis  is  just  here,  in  the  persistent  presence,  in 
any  separate  nation,  of  antagonistic  and  divergent  factors. 

The  so-called  Proletariat  Democracy  of  Russia  is  any- 
thing but  democratic,  by  reason  of  the  complex  and  utterly 
discordant  elements  that  are  represented  in  it  and  by  the 
disintegrating  influence  by  which  it  is  doomed  to  downfall. 

4.  An  additional  Postulate  of  democracy  and  as  vital  as 
any,  is  found  in  the  Surrender  of  Individual  Interests  for 
the  Public  Good.  We  speak  advisedly  of  Democracies  as 
Commonwealths,  in  which,  as  such,  the  common  weal  is  the 
avowed  purpose  of  the  system,  whereby  the  sacrifice  of  per- 
sonal privilege  is  so  often  demanded.  It  is  a  great  national 
Commune,  where  mutual  interests  control  any  private  in- 
terests and  national  prosperity  is  based  on  the  surrender 
of  rightful  personal  claims.  This  is  the  only  Communism 
that  can  be  rightfully  sustained. 

Such  are  the  Primary  Postulates  of  a  democratic  order 
so  absolutely  essential  to  its  existence  as  to  make  any  at- 
tempt without  them  to  constitute  a  free  commonwealth 
doomed  to  failure. 


Democracy  on  Trial  133 

III.  Opposing  Forces. 

No  sooner  do  these  fundamental  Postulates  assert  them- 
selves as  such  than  antagonistic  factors  are  found  to  be  at 
work  to  nullify  or  impair  them,  these  undemocratic  agencies 
being  more  potent  in  the  modern  world  than  at  any  previous 
period  of  the  world's  history.  Here  in  reality  is  a  battle- 
ground where  the  contest  is  to  be  as  severe  as  on  the  fields  of 
Flanders  and  on  the  outcome  of  which  the  future  of  democ- 
racy rests. 

1.  What  we  have  called  the  General  Morale  is  strictly  op- 
posed by  all  the  Immoral  Forces  of  the  day  which  seek  so  to 
diminish  and  debase  it  as  to  make  it  practically  inoperative 
in  national  life. 

2.  The  presence  and  extension  of  General  Intelligence  are 
confronted  at  every  turn  by  the  Ignorant  and  Illiterate 
Agencies  that  strangely  find  so  hospitable  a  home  and  so 
friendly  a  field  in  the  so-called  civilized  countries,  the  reve- 
lations of  the  late  war  exposing  startling  facts  as  to  the 
presence  of  this  anomaly. 

3.  The  preservation  of  a  National  Type  finds  a  formida- 
ble foe  in  the  Indiscriminate  Mingling  of  Races  and  Lan- 
guages possessed  of  diverse  traditions  and  so  diverse  as  to 
make  federation  well-nigh  impossible.  It  is  of  this  peril 
that  Mr.  Lowell  spoke  in  his  "Inaugural  Address  at  Bir- 
mingham," as  he  stated  that  the  democratic  principle  would 
be  more  likely  to  prevail  could  it  be  made  with  a  people 
"homogeneous  in  race,  language  and  tradition.''  It  is  here, 
as  nowhere  else,  in  so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned,  that 
the  interests  of  democracy  are  in  jeopardy.  It  is  no  trifling 
problem  before  any  people  to  mould  a  heterogeneous  mass 


134  Timely  Topics 

into  anything  like  civic  unity  and  yet  such  unity  must  at 
least  be  approximately  reached.  There  must  be  a  real  civic 
Concordat. 

4.  So  as  to  the  Subordination  of  Individual  Interests  to 
the  Common  Good.  Here  the  titanic  enemy  is  human  self- 
ishness, the  capital  sin  of  the  world,  whereby  vested  in- 
terests, so-called,  usurp  the  place  of  general  interests;  special 
privileges,  that  of  the  people's  needs,  and  what  may  be  called 
personal  profiteering  lies  straight  athwart  the  country's 
need. 

It  is  here  that  the  supposed  prerogatives  of  birth  and 
rank  assert  themselves,  the  distinctive  aristocratic  type  and 
temper.  It  is  here  that  what  a  modern  writer  calls  "ram- 
pant commercialism"  insists  on  riding  over  and  crushing 
all  that  lies  in  its  way.  "Unless  democracy,"  says  Ross, 
"mends  the  distribution  of  wealth,  the  mal-administration 
of  wealth  will  end  democracy."  It  is  this  peril  of  which  Mr. 
Lowell  speaks  as  especially  threatening  our  institutions, 
Plutocracy  as  opposed  to  Democracy,  the  absolute  refusal 
to  make  any  great  sacrifice  for  the  general  purpose,  but  an 
avowed  purpose  to  exploit  the  national  resources  for  private 
ends.     We  are  in  the  era  of  special  privilege. 

5.  There  is  a  further  enemy  at  the  door,  claiming  admit- 
tance and  control.  It  is  the  Abuse  of  Freedom,  a  pressing 
of  the  principle  of  democracy  far  beyond  its  legitimate  fron- 
tiers out  into  the  open  era  of  lawless  liberty,  the  worst 
form  of  anarchy.  This  is  the  gigantic  and  ominous  problem 
before  the  civilized  world  today,  to  show  newly  enfranchised 
peoples  how  to  use  the  legacy  of  national  freedom  without 
abusing  it,  and  even  the  older  democracies  are  in  need  of 


Democracy  on  Trial  135 

warning.  From  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  peoples  un- 
accustomed to  national  liberty  and  practically  unfit  for  it 
are  playing  fast  and  loose  with  this  problem  of  civic  re- 
organization on  a  democratic  basis.  Rejoicing  in  a  free- 
dom of  whose  meaning  they  are  ignorant,  and  yet  a  free- 
dom for  the  possession  of  which  they  are  willing  to  struggle 
and  suffer  and  die,  they  have  set  the  world  fairly  aflame 
and  who  can  tell  what  a  fatal  sweep  the  fires  may  have 
before  they  are  all  quenched. 

These  are  some  of  the  Undemocratic  Factors  in  opposi- 
tion to  a  true  freedom  of  the  state  and  the  dominant  duty 
of  civilized  Christendom  is  to  address  itself  to  the  task  of 
bringing  civic  order  out  of  this  civic  chaos. 

IV.  If  we  inquire  as  to  the  Methods  by  which  this  result 
is  to  be  reached,  despite  all  opposing  forces,  some  sug- 
gestions may  be  made. 

1.  First  of  all,  the  quickening  of  the  National  Conscience, 
the  elevation  of  the  national  morale,  a  duty  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  well  as  the  nation.  It  is  in  this  connection  that 
an  American  historian  speaks  of  "the  missionary  educators" 
in  the  Orient,  mining  and  undermining  the  despotisms  of 
the  East  and  nothing  short  of  the  principles  of  Christianity 
will  induce  a  moral  order,  East  and  West,  as  indispensable 
to  civic  stability. 

2.  The  spread  of  General  Intelligence,  the  education  of 
the  people  in  the  mass.  It  is  here  that  the  question  of  the 
Common  School,  the  People's  University,  comes  just  now 
to  the  front — well  called  by  MacAdam  "The  crisis  in  our 
schools,"  the  existing  need  in  this  direction  being  so  critical 
that  every  available  agency  must  be  used  to  meet  and  supply 


136  Timely  Topics 

it.  If,  as  the  poet  declares,  "  Tis  education  forms  the 
common  mind,"  this  formative  factor  must  be  utilized 
and  applied  so  as  to  make  any  such  system  as  democracy 
possible. 

3.  As  to  the  Corporate  Unity  and  Integrity  of  National 
Life,  its  preservation  would  seem  to  be  dependent  upon  the 
ability  of  any  separate  nation  so  to  control  the  incoming  of 
alien  elements  as  to  keep  them  within  safe  limitations.  Just 
as  a  language  may  safely  admit  foreign  factors  up  to  the 
point  of  possible  assimilation  and  no  further  so  a  people's 
civic  individuality  may  safely  admit  foreign  factors  only 
within  its  capability  to  mould  and  fuse  them  organically  into 
the  national  life.  National  Personality  in  a  democracy  can- 
not be  secured  and  preserved  apart  from  the  country's  con- 
trol of  the  process  of  immigration. 

4.  So  as  to  the  Altruistic  Factor  in  democracy.  Greater 
emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  the  principle  that  a  common- 
wealth in  its  very  conception  includes  the  virtue  of  personal 
sacrifice.  It  is  the  general  welfare  that  constitutes  its  pre- 
eminent purpose,  so  that  all  the  subdivisions  of  civic  rule, 
local,  municipal  and  state,  must  be  subordinate  to  the  na- 
tional weal.  It  must  in  truth  be  affirmed  that  democracy, 
as  other  forms  of  government,  must  be  based  on  a  gen- 
erous concession  to  Common  Interests  so  that  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  democratic  ideal  is  to  be  secured  only  by  a  strict 
resistance  to  every  form  of  merely  individual  good.  At 
no  point  does  free  government  meet  with  stronger  opposi- 
tion than  just  here,  and  at  no  point,  therefore,  is  a  more 
courageous  altruistic  attitude  demanded  to  meet  it. 

5.  So  must  the  Abuse  of  Political  Freedom  be  met  by  a 


Democracy  on  Trial  137 

legitimate  use  of  it.  When  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Lowell  that 
"England  is  a  monarchy  with  democratic  tendencies,"  he  is 
quick  to  add  that  "America  is  a  democracy  with  conserva- 
tive instincts,"  which  is  but  another  method  of  insisting 
that  there  can  be  no  such  result  as  a  safe  and  stable  free 
state,  in  which  the  principle  of  freedom  is  not  limited  by 
law.  Democracy  just  because  it  includes  the  element  of 
liberty  in  emphatic  form  and  measure  becomes  the  most 
dangerous  species  of  civic  rule,  unless  it  is  kept  within 
bounds.  Such  as  we  conceive  them  are  the  Elements  and 
Postulates  of  Democracy,  such  its  Opposing  Forces  and  the 
Methods  of  meeting  and  overcoming  them,  and  once  again, 
the  question  confronts  us,  If  democracy  is  still  on  trial,  is 
the  Testing  to  be  successful.  To  this,  we  are  assured,  there 
can  be  but  one  answer  and  that  in  the  affirmative,  even 
though  it  may  yet  be  viewed,  the  world  over,  as  in  its 
experimental  stage.  The  ground  of  this  conclusion  lies  in 
the  fact  of  the  Universality  of  The  Democratic  Instinct, 
which  beyond  all  question  as  such  will  work  its  way  in  and 
out  past  all  obstructions  whatever  to  the  final  issue.  Its 
triumph  is  assured  because  "the  world  over  certain  uni- 
versal causes  are  undermining  arbitrary  and  anti-social  gov- 
ernment." It  is  as  Patrick  Henry  phrased  it,  "Liberty  or 
Death."  As  the  poet  Wordsworth  phrased  it,  "We  must 
be  free  or  die." 

From  the  opening  of  recorded  history  it  is  seen  to  be 
true  that  it  is  toward  the  free  rule  of  the  people  that  the 
world  has  been  facing  and  will  not  and  cannot  beat  a  retreat, 
or  even  call  a  halt.  Political  liberty  is  the  ultimate  ideal 
and  goal  of  every  people — apart  from  which  civic  existence 


138  Timely  Topics 

is  useless.  In  that  final  federation  of  the  world  to  which 
all  signs  are  pointing  and  to  which  all  policies  are  shaping, 
the  only  legislative  chamber  will  be  the  House  of  Commons. 

Herein  lie  the  responsibility  and  opportunity  of  our  own 
country,  to  make  what  De  Tocqueville  called,  "Democracy  in 
America,"  the  inspiring  model  and  standard  for  a  struggling 
world.  There  is,  to  our  mind,  nothing  more  pathetic  and 
promising  than  what  we  are  witnessing  at  the  moment 
among  the  hitherto  oppressed  peoples  of  the  world,  in  their 
desperate  efforts  to  realize  this  political  ideal. 

Rarely,  we  may  venture  to  say,  has  a  more  inspiring 
scene  been  witnessed  in  the  English  Parliament  than  when 
Lloyd  George  in  the  most  impassioned  terms  he  could  com- 
mand, sought  to  depict  what  was  transpiring,  as  he  spoke, 
in  Central  Europe,  in  the  life  and  death  struggles  for  civic 
freedom,  and  with  an  earnestness  suffused  with  pathos  was 
pleading  with  Parliament  to  have  patience  and  forbearance 
with  these  peoples,  suddenly  called  upon  without  prepara- 
tion to  undertake  the  functions  of  nationhood,  to  begin  a 
"new  life  without  training  and  discipline,"  making  mistakes 
indeed,  but  "the  mistakes  of  inexperience,"  and  he  appeals 
with  pathetic  passion  to  Parliament  to  be  sympathetic  and 
forgiving  toward  these  heroic  peoples,  who  have  been  "tram- 
pled upon  for  ages  and  who  have  had  no  chance  to  learn  to 
govern,"  but  who  still  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  any 
sacrifice  whatsoever,  if  so  be  they  may  secure  the  right  to 
live  as  the  free  citizens  of  a  free  state. 

It  is  to  this  Republic  of  the  West  that  these  peoples  are 
looking  for  "light  and  leading."  Here  is  the  call  for  an 
international   outlook   and   service   on   the   part   of   every 


National  Loyalty  139 

genuine  American,  and  he  who  fails  to  recognize  and 
realize  it  is  an  unworthy  citizen  of  this  country  and  is  in- 
excusably blind  to  the  most  inspiring  movement  of  modern 
times. 

There  is  an  Americanism,  so-called,  that  belies  its  own 
true  character  and  defeats  its  own  highest  ends  under  the 
plausible  principle  of  national  loyalty — refusing  to  enter 
the  open  door  to  all  peoples  that  Providence  and  the  course 
of  history  and  Human  Brotherhood  have  enjoined  it  to 
enter,  and  deaf  to  the  peoples  across  the  seas  that  implore 
it  to  recognize  the  impending  perils  and  needs  of  the  world 
at  large.  Democracy  in  its  very  conception  contains  within 
it  the  principle  of  universality  and  will  never  fulfill  its  native 
function  until  it  compasses  the  civic  unity  of  the  world. 

NATIONAL  LOYALTY 

This  is  a  subject  interesting  at  all  times  in  the  course  of 
a  people's  history,  but  especially  prominent  under  present- 
day  conditions  as  modified  and  emphasized  by  the  late  war. 
The  pertinent  question  is  as  to  just  what  National  Loyalty 
means,  what  it  involves,  and  what  it  prohibits,  what  its 
salient  elements  are  and  what  its  limitations  and  guarantees. 
The  study  of  this  expression  of  civic  life  through  what  has 
been  aptly  called  "the  processes  of  history"  is  as  attractive 
as  it  is  significant  and  confronts  the  civilized  world  with  an 
urgency  heretofore  unknown. 

If  we  inquire  at  the  outset  as  to  what  its  Characteristics 
are,  we  note  two  or  three  of  primary  import : 

1.     Devotion  to  the  nation's  Traditions — its  antecedents 


140  Timely  Topics 

and  successive  stages  of  historical  development  from  its 
earliest  immature  forms  to  its  present  status.  Every  nation, 
older  or  younger,  superior  or  inferior,  may  be  said  to  have 
its  well  understood  traditions  of  which  it  is  zealously  and 
naturally  jealous  and  which  it  feels  under  solemn  obligation 
to  preserve  intact  against  all  attempts  to  underrate  or  ignore 
them.  Civic  writers  have  called  our  attention  to  "the  in- 
spirations of  history,"  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  basis 
of  such  "inspirations"  may  be  found  in  the  successive  epochs 
of  the  nation's  corporate  life.  There  is  a  definite  some- 
thing in  every  country's  history  which  it  visibly  represents, 
for  which  it  stands  and  which  gives  it  national  place  and 
function.  Thus  Greece  represents  culture,  and  Rome,  power. 
There  is  a  national  as  well  as  an  individual  personality,  and 
this,  in  its  essential  factors,  must  be  maintained  if  so  be  the 
nation  is  to  have  any  place  and  part  in  the  world's  develop- 
ment. An  American  author  has  recently  called  our  atten- 
tion to  "The  Spiritual  Tradition  of  American  Life,"  as 
manifested  not  only  in  the  strictly  religious  sphere,  but  in 
education,  literature  and  social  order.  There  are  spiritual 
traditions  and  secular  traditions  in  every  nation's  life  that 
make  it  what  it  is  in  the  view  of  the  world.  National 
loyalty  demands  that  the  nation  be  true  to  these  Traditions 
— to  its  historic  status  and  function,  ever  reluctant  to  sur- 
render or  disown  them.  As  historic,  they  are  presumed  to 
be  fixed  factors  in  the  nation's  life,  constitute  the  very  basis 
of  its  existence  and  must,  in  their  essential  elements  subsist 
and  persist  in  the  face  of  all  attempts  to  discard  them.  The 
recent  Tercentenary  Celebration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims  is   a   signal   example  of   America's   fidelity   to   her 


National  Loyalty  141 

founders  and  to  the  institutions  which  they  established.  To 
fail  to  recognize  them  would  be  disloyal. 

2.  Devotion  to  the  Nation's  Ideals — civic,  educational, 
social  and  religious.  As  every  nation  has  a  history  and  a 
body  of  traditions,  so  it  is  supposed  to  have,  and  in  reality 
must  have  what  may  be  called  a  definite  national  Objective, 
a  civic  Aspiration,  a  future  as  well  as  a  past,  an  Ideal  which 
it  aims  by  successive  efforts  to  realize  and  enjoy.  When 
it  is  said  that  every  country  has  a  specific  mission  which 
it  is  its  prerogative  to  prosecute  and  fulfill  this  is  simply 
to  state  that  it  has  an  ultimate  goal  toward  which  it  is  mov- 
ing and  concentrating  all  its  energies.  Aristocracy,  Mon- 
archy or  Democracy,  whatever  the  form  of  government 
may  be,  its  controlling  desire  is  to  realize  this  type  more  and 
more  completely  as  national  life  develops.  To  realize  it  is, 
indeed,  the  primary  justification  of  its  being  as  a  nation 
and  differentiates  it  from  all  other  nations  with  which  it  is 
connected.  When  it  is  known  what  these  ideals  are,  in 
themselves,  and  their  influence,  then  it  is  known  what  the 
nation's  true  character  is  and  how  it  stands  related  to  the 
world's  betterment. 

In  this  sphere  of  ideals  it  is  pertinent  to  notice  that  we 
are  on  a  much  higher  plane  than  that  of  the  merely  historic, 
in  the  realm  of  the  purely  imaginative,  wherein  we  can  give 
free  play  to  the  thought  as  to  what  may  be  realized  as  the 
years  go  on  in  the  region  of  the  purely  possible.  In  the 
distinctly  materialistic  aims  of  states  and  peoples,  now  so 
potent,  it  is  this  idealistic  impulse  which  may  act  as  a  coun- 
ter-agency and  keep  the  nation  well  in  line  with  all  the 
higher  factors  of  a  nation's  progress. 


142  Timely  Topics 

Such  are  the  two  basic  Characteristics  of  national  loyalty 
— devotion  to  the  nation's  Traditions  and  its  Ideals, — in  fine, 
devotion  to  the  nation's  best  interests  as  the  citizens  of  the 
respective  nations  conceive  them,  involving  obedience  to  the 
laws  of  the  land,  as  the  very  word  Loy-al-ty  means,  defence 
of  its  rights  and  institutions  and  every  possible  promotion 
of  its  civic  welfare.  Just  here,  however,  there  are  certain 
Limitations  or  Conditions  that  must  be  observed  as  consti- 
tuting a  genuine  loyalty.  Some  of  these  may  be  cited  and 
interpreted  as  fundamental  requisites: 

I.  Fidelity  to  the  nation's  history  and  ideals  is  to  be 
maintained  in  so  far  as  such  history  and  ideals  are  Com- 
mendable. Herein  lies  the  test  of  every  separate  people 
and  the  most  serious  problem  of  all  related  peoples  as  to 
what  historic  traditions  and  what  specific  ideals  shall  be  pre- 
served and  what  sacrificed  for  the  general  good.  Differ- 
ence of  opinion  and  clashing  of  interests  at  this  point  are 
the  sufficient  explanation  of  national  struggles  and  one  of 
the  problems  of  the  future  is  to  harmonize  conflicting  in- 
terests and  by  mutual  concessions  secure  the  best  interests 
of  the  world  at  large. 

"Our  country  right  or  wrong"  is  a  national  creed  that 
in  the  light  of  this  limitation  must  be  absolutely  discarded. 
There  is  scarcely  a  nation,  if  indeed  any,  portions  of  whose 
historic  record  and  cherished  ideals  should  not  be  disowned 
on  behalf  of  the  world's  good  and  in  the  name  of  loyalty. 
To  insist  that  loyalty  to  American  history  must  still  include 
the  sanction  of  the  earlier  institution  of  slavery  as  a  legiti- 
mate and  desirable  part  of  its  national  being,  or  that  loyalty 
to   Teutonic   ideals   must   include   the   sanction   of   world- 


National  Loyalty  143 

domination,  as  the  manifest  aim  of  the  Central  Powers  in 
the  late  war,  is  not  only  to  invalidate  all  moral  distinctions, 
but  to  make  any  such  result  as  the  world's  betterment  prac- 
tically impossible.  If,  as  is  said,  history  repeats  itself,  the 
repetition  to  be  beneficial,  must  be  that  of  desirable  features 
and  elements.  When  a  recent  writer  tells  us  that  "most  of 
the  ideals  which  guided  the  politics  of  Continental  Europe 
in  the  last  century  could  give  no  good  account  of  them- 
selves to  our  unprejudiced  sense  of  right"  and  "that  at 
every  step  America  has  boldly  thrown  off  traditions  which 
could  not  account  for  themselves  to  reason,"  he  has  in 
mind  the  presence  of  such  necessary  limitation  as  that  we 
are  now  demanding — that  national  history  and  national 
ideals  shall  be  sanctioned  and  preserved  in  so  far  and  only 
in  so  far  as  they  conform  to  national  equity.  "Every  na- 
tion," he  states,  "must  be  willing  to  amend  its  purposes." 
It  is  just  such  an  amendment  of  purposes  and  of  historic 
antecedents  that  is,  at  this  moment,  engaging  the  best 
thought  of  the  modern  world.  States  and  nations,  the  world 
over,  are  reviewing  and  revising  their  traditions  and  ideals, 
and  instituting  by  the  necessities  of  the  hour,  a  new  national 
order.  This  is  what  is  meant,  in  the  main,  by  the  New  Era 
— an  era  in  which  national  history  is  re-written  and  national 
ideals  are  re-examined.  An  interesting  volume  by  Fried- 
man, "America  and  The  New  Era,"  is  but  one  contribution 
among  scores  of  treatises  as  to  this  demand  for  the  reopen- 
ing of  the  question  as  to  just  what  fidelity  to  a  nation's 
good  involves  and  as  to  what  it  demands  in  the  line  of 
national  revision. 

II.  A  devotion  to  the  nation's  Traditions  and  Ideals  in 


144  Timely  Topics 

the  light  of  International  Relations  and  Responsibilities. 
Here  we  come  to  one  of  the  most  significant  developments 
of  the  late  war,  the  new  and  vigorous  emphasis  of  inter- 
nationalism and  the  consequent  emphatic  protest  against 
national  isolation  as  out  of  keeping  with  the  exigencies  of 
the  hour  and  primary  interests  of  the  world  at  large.  Hence, 
the  expression  as  never  before  of  The  International  Mind, 
the  discussion  of  local  issues  in  the  light  of  the  common 
good,  the  insistence  that  no  state  can  determine  its  func- 
tions and  live  its  life  apart  from  the  study  of  the  interests 
of  border  states.  If  this  requires  the  practical  renunciation 
of  some  of  a  nation's  cherished  antecedents  and  aims,  then 
the  renunciation  musjt  be  made,  and  this  in  fullest  keeping 
with  a  consistent  national  loyalty.  From  the  forgetfulness 
of  this  demand  the  civilized  world  has  suffered  untold  evil 
and  one  of  the  costly  lessons  of  the  late  tragedy  has  been 
in  the  line  of  a  justifiable  national  concession  for  interna- 
tional ends. 

There  is  a  true  and  a  false  loyalty,  and  while  every  de- 
voted citizen  is  bound  to  give  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  to  his 
own  land,  there  are  times  when  a  positive  surrender  of 
long  cherished  views  must  be  made  in  the  spirit  of  altruism. 
This  is  the  "New  Nationalism"  now  in  evidence  for  which 
the  modern  world  has  long  been  waiting,  a  real  League  of 
Nations,  constituted  by  the  inevitable  "processes  of  history" 
and  which  cannot  be  successfully  resisted  by  any  human 
agency. 

III.  A  further  essential  condition  of  National  Loyalty  is 
found  in  the  surrender  of  Partisan  Preference  to  the  Na- 
tion's good.     Political  parties  are  a  necessity  and  in  their 


National  Loyalty  145 

place  and  way  may  be  made  contributive  to  the  welfare  of 
the  people,  but  their  place  and  way  must  be  subordinate  to 
general  interests  whenever  these  interests  conflict.  This  is 
another  patent  outcome  of  the  late  war — a  breaking  down 
of  long  established  political  alliances,  the  realignment  of 
civic  orders,  and  an  insistence  that  national  interests  shall 
not  be  ultimately  determined  from  the  standpoint  of  party 
principle.  Party  Loyalty  is  one  thing.  National  Loyalty 
is  a  far  different  and  a  higher  function,  and  in  the  case  of 
conflict,  no  right-minded  citizen  should  be  in  doubt  where 
he  stands.  The  party  system  has  been  pushed  to  an  extreme 
and  is  now  the  bane  of  American  politics,  as  it  has  been  of 
the  politics  of  Europe,  and  has  been  erroneously  defended 
on  the  ground  of  national  well-being.  If  in  the  exigencies 
of  war  or  some  impending  national  disaster,  all  partisan 
distinctions  must  be  ignored  and  are  willingly  ignored  as  an 
expression  of  civic  loyalty,  such  a  surrender  of  partisan 
principles  and  prejudices  is  surely  in  demand  in  the  every- 
day development  of  a  nation's  life. 

From  this  discussion  certain  Inferences  follow : 
1.  National  Loyalty  as  thus  characterized  and  conditioned 
is  a  principle  especially  applicable  to  Free  Governments, 
where  the  utmost  liberty  of  opinion  and  self-determination 
prevail,  independent  of  the  necessary  restrictions  of  absolu- 
tion. What  may  be  called  the  great  Democratic  Ideal  as 
more  and  more  realized  among  modern  representative  states 
essentially  involves  this  order  of  national  loyalty,  a  most  sig- 
nificant and  promising  trend  of  the  times  being  the  increas- 
ing surrender  on  the  part  of  monarchies  of  anything  like 
arbitrary  rule  in  favor  of  a  more  liberal  civic  order. 


146  Timely  Topics 

2.  It  may  be  further  "suggested  that  this  conception  of 
national  loyalty  clearly  indicates  the  duty  of  Adopted  Cit- 
izens, that  when  adopted  by  voluntary  preferences  into  the 
constitutional  and  corporate  body  of  another  state,  they  are 
thereby  under  legal  and  moral  obligation  to  give  to  such 
an  adopted  nation  an  absolutely  undivided  allegiance.  Never 
has  there  been  a  time  when  the  insistence  upon  this  order 
of  allegiance  should  be  more  pronounced  than  now,  so  that 
newly  accepted  citizens  from  foreign  lands  should  be  ex- 
pected and  required  to  renounce  the  status  of  double  citizen- 
ship, or  return  at  once  to  the  land  of  their  nativity. 

No  self-respecting  nation  can  be  expected  to  recognize 
two  distinct  orders  of  citizens  and  deliberately  admit  an  alien 
element  into  its  national  life.  Untold  evil  has  followed  in 
the  late  war  from  the  neglect  of  this  civic  requirement  and 
separate  nations  have  been  obliged  to  restate  and  reaffirm 
the  absolute  necessity  of  a  single  allegiance.  Alien  peoples 
should  not  only  be  naturalized,  they  should  be  nationalized 
and  by  solemn  adjuration  declare  their  unqualified  devotion 
to  their  adopted  land,  nor  is  there  any  country  where  the 
application  of  this  order  of  loyalty  is  more  important  than  in 
our  own. 

We  speak  of  loyalty  as  a  devotion,  and  rightly  so.  It  is 
more  than  a  merely  political  allegiance  to  a  particular  gov- 
ernment. It  is  a  relation  of  affectionate  and  personal  in- 
terest— a  real  fellowship  and  cordial  fraternity, — a  civic 
brotherhood.  Professor  Royce  in  his  suggestive  book  on 
"Loyalty/'  treats  it  from  this  psychologic  point  of  view, 
as  involving  the  nature  of  a  real  friendship.  It  is  thus  that 
Charles  Francis  Adams  asserts  "that  the  basis  of  every 


Great  Historic  Movements  147 

government  must  be  the  loyalty  and  love  of  its  people." 
This  is  what  is  meant  by  Patriotism — the  love  of  country, 
a  devotion  far  depeer  and  stronger  than  a  merely  political 
relation  can  be. 

In  the  recent  war  we  have  had  a  conspicuous  example  of 
national  loyalty  on  its  military  side  when  citizens  by  the 
millions  proffered  themselves  to  the  defense  of  their  native 
land.  What  the  world  now  needs  is  national  loyalty  on  its 
civic  side.  As  has  been  well  said  by  an  American  writer, 
"We  have  yet  to  learn  as  a  people  that  the  peace-time  duties 
of  government  are  even  more  critical  than  its  duties  in 
war."  In  the  natural  reaction  from  the  strenuous  demands 
of  war  the  tendency  in  all  governments  has  been  far  too 
manifest  to  modify  and  impair  that  unqualified  devotion 
to  the  nation's  interests  that  characterized  the  years  of 
struggle.  What  is  now  needed  more  than  ever  is  an  order 
of  civic  allegiance  and  affection  that  does  not  depend  on 
any  exceptional  event  threatening  the  very  life  of  the  nation 
and  justified  on  the  ground  of  self-defense,  but  a  patriotism 
that  is  alert  and  active  at  all  times,  suited  as  well  to  the 
ordinary  activities  of  the  nation  as  to  the  eras  of  emergency, 
— a  permanent  state  of  the  public  mind,  unaffected  by  pass- 
ing influences  and  thereby  directly  contributive  to  civic 
stability  and  progress.  The  urgent  need  of  the  hour  is  a 
Patriotism  of  Peace,  supplementing  and  sanctifying  the 
Patriotism  of  War. 

GREAT  HISTORIC  MOVEMENTS 

In  such  instructive  historic  serials  as,  Epochs  of  Modern 
History,  and,  Epochs  of  English  History,  we  have  signal 


148  Timely  Topics 

examples  of  great  historic  movements  in  England  and  Con- 
tinental Europe,  in  Asia  and  the  civilized  world  over,  these 
epochal  movements  having  received  special  emphasis  in  the 
recent  world-wide  struggle.  Such  representative  events  as 
the  Dissolution  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  Rise,  Develop- 
ment and  Disappearance  of  Mediaevalism,  the  successive 
Crusades  to  recover  the  Holy  Land  from  the  Saracens,  the 
Great  Migrations  of  Peoples  from  the  East,  spreading  from 
Asia  steadily  westward  into  Europe  and  the  New  Western 
World,  the  Opening  of  the  East  to  Western  Civilization, 
the  Beginning  of  the  Modern  Era  in  the  Sixteenth  Century, 
involving  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  under  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  Critical  Battles  of  the  Thirty  Years  War,  the 
Great  Revolutions,  such  as  those  of  1688,  1789,  1776,  the 
Norman  Conquest  of  the  Eleventh  Century,  the  Great  Char- 
ter of  12 1 5,  the  Rise  of  Internationalism,  the  Democratic 
Development  of  the  Modern  Era,  the  New  Era  in  Indus- 
trialism and,  by  way  of  historical  climax,  the  recent  World 
War.  All  these  and  similar  Historic  Movements,  arrest 
the  attention  of  students  of  history  and  the  thought  of  the 
modern  world  and  afford  material  for  ever  new  investiga- 
tion and  instruction.  Forming,  as  they  do,  but  a  part  of 
those  complex  historical  phenomena  which  have  been  in 
evidence  since  the  dawn  of  history,  they  are  ever  appearing 
in  other  and  equally  significant  forms  and  will  so  appear 
until  the  final  record  of  the  world's  events  is  registered. 

A  study  of  the  Salient  Characteristics  of  these  Move- 
ments will  be  of  interest.  1.  They  are,  in  the  main,  Silent 
and  Invisible,  "the  final  result,"  as  has  been  said  "of  a  long 
process   of   organic   development."      Historians    have   ad- 


Great  Historic  Movements  149 

dressed  themselves  with  praiseworthy  assiduity  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  the  Origin  or  Causes  of  these  Move- 
ments, which  have  constantly  evaded  explanation.  What, 
after,  all,  were  the  determining  Causes  of  the  Thirty  Years 
War,  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  of  the  Westward  Migra- 
tions, of  the  Revolutions  of  1688  and  1789,  of  the  Opening 
of  the  Orient?  No  more  signal  example  of  this  fruitless 
quest  can  be  found  than  that  furnished  by  the  late  war. 
Causes  direct  and  indirect,  distant  and  proximate,  national 
and  international,  racial,  social,  political  and  economic, — 
each  has  had  its  ardent  advocates,  all  of  whom  have  been 
baffled  by  what  may  be  called  the  Invisibility  of  the  Causes 
— reaching  far  back  in  current  history,  and  deeply  down  to 
the  inmost  centre  of  events,  expressing,  as  they  do,  the 
final  and  visible  result  of  a  long  and  involved  and  hidden 
series  of  causal  agency.  As  Professor  Munro  has  stated  it 
— "In  history  it  is  seldom  possible  to  attribute  any  great 
change  to  a  single  cause." 

2.  They  are  Irresistible,  baffling  all  human  endeavors 
either  to  stay  their  progress  or  divert  their  chosen  courses. 
These  "Processes  of  History''  are  as  inevitable  and  unyield- 
ing as  the  daily  recurrence  of  the  tides,  or  the  rotation  of 
the  seasons,  in  a  kind  of  predestined  procession  they  rise 
and  develop  in  momentum  and  advance  from  stage  to  stage 
in  proud  defiance  of  all  obstructions.  At  times,  moving 
with  significant  slowness  and,  at  times,  breaking  out  in 
startling  suddenness  and  volume;  at  times,  expressing 
themselves  in  a  direct  forward  movement,  and,  at  times, 
reaching  their  final  and  fullest  form  by  circuitous  courses; 
at  times,  apparently  within  the  area  of  human  control,  but 


150  Timely  Topics 

soon  evincing  independent  freedom,  they  refuse  to  be  fore- 
stalled or  deflected  as  they  move  steadily  on  toward  their 
destined  end. 

A  glance  at  the  Great  Events  of  History  is  sufficient  to 
evince  the  impotence  of  any  attempt  to  prevent  them.  While 
there  is  a  limited  sense  in  which  man  may  be  said  to  make 
history  and  shape  the  course  of  human  events,  such  events, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  epochal  and  pivotal,  are  practically 
outside  the  sphere  of  his  prevention. 

Here,  also,  in  the  World  War  appears  a  pertinent  illustra- 
tion, in  that  as  it  occurred  the  time  would  seem  to  have 
come  when  its  occurrence  was  unavoidable,  the  necessary 
culmination  of  a  series  of  events,  dating  far  back  of  Aus- 
trian and  Serbian  history,  and  quite  assignable  to  this  or 
that  King  or  people,  whatever  may  have  been  their  sub- 
ordinate relation  thereto.  These  Historic  Movements  are 
irresistible  because  they  are  subterranean  and  tidal,  moving 
as  the  Gulf  Stream  moves,  as  the  Alpine  Glaciers  move, 
steadily  forward  to  their  climacteric. 

3.  They  are  Comprehensive  Movements.  They  affect  all 
sections  and  functions  of  the  World-Order. 

In  the  Political  Province,  we  see  Dynasties  and  Empires 
overturned,  the  best  laid  schemes  of  designing  men  brought 
to  sudden  and  often  violent  confusion,  the  uniform  course 
of  history  apparently  checked  or  abruptly  changed.  As  the 
Scriptures  state  it,  "the  devices  of  the  people  are  made  of 
none  effect."  What  is  called,  Political  Sagacity,  is  exposed 
as  the  veriest  foolishness  and  a  new  civic  order  emerges, 
altogether  outside  the  policies  of  what  are  strangely  called, 
the  Powers. 


Great  Historic  Movements  151 

So  in  the  Social  and  Industrial  World,  these  Historic 
Movements  have  fairly  overturned  the  existing  order  and, 
as  Mr.  Kidd  states  it,  "all  the  people  are  brought  into  the 
rivalry  of  life  on  conditions  of  equal  social  opportunities." 
Modern  Socialism,  so-called,  in  all  its  multiform  phases  is 
but  one  of  the  many  evidences  of  the  comprehensive  ex- 
pression of  these  Movements,  by  which  the  doctrine  of  the 
Open  Door  has  become  a  dominant  one  in  all  the  relations 
of  Capital  and  Labor.  The  Social  Evolution  of  the  Masses 
is  in  active  formation. 

So,  in  the  sphere  of  Mind  and  Educational  Systems,  illus- 
trated in  such  a  survey  as  Draper's  "Intellectual  Develop- 
ment of  Europe" — a  development  moving  in  the  face  of  all 
opposing  influences,  so  as  to  secure  the  offer  of  educational 
privilege  to  all  classes  of  the  people,  a  world-wide  Uni- 
versity Extension.  Courthope,  in  his  suggestive  treatise, 
"The  Liberal  Movement  in  English  Literature,"  applies  this 
all-embracing  agency  to  the  special  spheres  of  letters — the 
expression  of  mental  and  educational  ability  in  authorship. 

The  stimulating  effect  of  the  World  War  along  this 
special  line  of  effort  is  clearly  manifest  in  that  real  Revival 
of  Learning  that  marks  the  second  decade  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  So,  in  the  higher  sphere  of  Religious  Thought 
and  Life,  these  Historic  Movements  are  equally  conspicuous, 
insisting  on  the  primacy  of  the  essential  truths  of  Christian- 
ity as  distinct  from  everything  secondary  and  irrelevant,  on 
the  restatement  of  all  Creeds  and  Confessions  in  terms  of 
everyday  needs,  and  on  the  fuller  recognition  of  a  safe  and 
wholesome  Liberalism. 

4.  These  movements  are,  in  the  main,  Beneficent.    Indeed, 


152  Timely  Topics 

it  may  be  said,  that  what  is  called,  The  Progress  of  Civiliza- 
tion, is  based  on  this  fact.  They  are  what  the  historian 
Lord  has  called,  "The  Beacon  Lights  of  History."  Even 
in  such  apparently  adverse  Movements  as  the  great  Me- 
diaeval Period  between  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  and 
the  opening  of  the  Modern  Era,  influences  are  seen  to  be 
closely  operating  by  which  human  progress  is  advanced  and 
beneficent  ends  ultimately  reached. 

It  is  significant  in  this  connection  to  note  that  modern 
historians  are  already  at  work  directing  and  interpreting  the 
benefits,  direct  and  indirect,  that  are  seen  already  to  be  issu- 
ing from  the  tragic  conflict  of  the  last  few  years.  They 
are  emphasizing  what  are  known  as  the  Compensations  of 
history,  the  almost  miraculous  manner  in  which  portentous 
events  assume  a  beneficent  meaning  and  make  a  distinctive 
contribution  in  due  time  to  the  general  good  of  the  race, 
at  times  retarded  or  reversed,  but  never  permanently 
thwarted. 

5.  Hence  it  may  be  further  stated  that  these  Movements 
are  under  Divine  Direction.  This  doctrine  is  the  keynote  of 
Mr.  Kidd's  volume  on  "Social  Evolution,"  in  which  he  sums 
up  all  his  suggestions  in  the  comprehensive  conclusion — 
"The  Evolution  which  is  slowly  proceeding  in  human  so- 
ciety is  religious  in  character"  under  the  ultimate  direction, 
he  would  say,  of  a  superintending  Providence.  In  the 
Shakespearian  phrase:  "There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  the 
ends"  of  human  history,  or  as  the  poet  Tennyson  expresses 
it :  "the  event  to  which  the  whole  creation  moves"  is  a  "far- 
off  divine  event,"  ordered  and  controlled  under,  divine 
agency.    The  attempt  made  by  Mr.  Buckle  to  write  the  His- 


Great  Historic  Movements  153 

tory  of  European  Civilization  without  recognizing  this  prin- 
ciple, doomed  his  project  to  failure.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  the  Philosophy  of  History  apart  from  the  presence  of  this 
principle  which  once  again  has  been  so  clearly  confirmed 
by  the  late  war  as  to  make  its  denial  impossible,  a  struggle  in 
which  all  contestants  alike  claimed  divine  sanction  and  sup- 
port. 

Such  are  some  of  the  manifest  Characteristics  of  these 
Great  Historic  Movements  as  Invisible,  Irresistible,  Com- 
prehensive, in  the  main,  Beneficent  and,  in  their  final  issues, 
under  the  government  of  God.  It  is  the  presence  of  these 
features  that  makes  the  study  of  these  World-Wide  Move- 
ments as  complex  and  difficult  as  it  is  stimulating  and  im- 
pressive. Nothing  could  be  more  imposing  than  the  silent, 
secret  and  solemn  advance  of  these  "Processes  of  History." 
Nothing  could  more  stir  the  historic  imagination  than  such 
movements,  as  for  example,  the  Great  Migrations  of  his- 
tory, while  it  is  questionable  whether  in  the  course  of  human 
events  there  has  ever  been  a  more  signal  illustration  of  this 
imposing  spectacle  than  that  afforded  by  the  late  titanic 
struggle,  in  which  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world  at  large 
were  seen  in  actual  movement  toward  what  a  modern  his- 
torian has  well  called  "The  Mandate  of  Destiny."  It  is 
this  historic  movement  toward  the  realization  of  "Manifest 
Destiny"  that  is  now  engrossing  the  attention  of  the  think- 
ing world  and  who  can  tell  what  are  to  be  the  issues  thereof. 
One  or  two  suggestions  are  in  place :  * 

First  of  all,  there  is  here  involved  a  distinctive  Human 
Factor,  responsible  in  its  place  and  way  for  the  results  that 
are  finally  reached.     It  is  the  part  of  Human  Agency  to 


154  Timely  Topics 

"discover  the  signs  of  the  times,"  to  interpret  aright  and 
utilize  those  epochal  historic  events  that  are  passing  in  sol- 
emn succession  before  it,  which  unless  correctly  interpreted 
and  utilized  may  be  fraught  with  untold  disaster  to  the 
world  at  large.  Here  it  is  that  Constructive  Statesmanship 
is  needed,  as,  also,  intelligent  and  Conscientious  Judgment 
on  the  part  of  the  body  politic,  one  of  the  many  crucial 
tests  of  democratic  government  lying  just  here.  The  fact 
that  ultimate  world  issues  are  in  the  hands  of  a  controlling 
Providence  in  no  sense  absolves  the  nations  from  their 
specific  obligations  as  cooperating  agents  in  the  evolution 
of  history.  Here,  as  everywhere  else,  divine  and  human 
factors  must  be  coordinated  if  so  be  the  highest  ends  are  to 
be  secured.  Nations  as  individuals  are  to  work  out  their 
own  salvation  just  because  a  superhuman  aid  is  guaranteed 
as  a  condition  of  success. 

2.  The  attitude  of  the  modern  world  in  the  light  of  these 
movements  should  be  a  Hopeful  one.  "Great  and  trans- 
forming as  the  coming  changes  in  all  probability  will  be," 
writes  Mr.  Kidd,  "no  overturning  of  society  is  to  be  ex- 
pected. We  are  moving  and  shall  continue  to  move  by  or- 
derly stages  to  the  goal  toward  which  the  face  of  society  has 
in  reality  been  set  from  the  beginning  of  our  civilization." 
It  is  the  privilege  and  duty  of  the  world's  citizenship  to  take 
part  in  this  historic  advance  toward  ever  better  issues,  even 
though  these  "orderly  stages"  may  at  times  be  arrested  and 
diverted  and  even  reversed  by  the  influence  of  unexpected 
counter  agencies.  If  the  movement  is  not  always  directly 
upward,  it  may  be  spiral  in  its  progress,  but  still  will  mark 
an  advance.     In  fine,  the  world's  equilibrium  is  at  this  mo- 


The  Recent  Revival  of  Learning  155 

ment  more  unstable  than  at  any  previous  period,  and  stabil- 
izing it  is  the  supreme  obligation  and  opportunity  of  the 
hour. 

All  Movements,  just  because  they  are  Movements,  are 
attended  with  possible  perils,  but  it  is  also  true  that  as 
Movements  they  escape  the  evils  of  stagnation  and  inert- 
ness, have  in  them  the  principle  of  life  and  are,  as  such,  in 
the  direct  line  of  progress,  and  will,  if  the  nations  are  faith- 
ful to  their  trust,  bring  to  this  weary  and  waiting  world 
what  Tennyson  hopefully  calls  "The  closing  cycle  rich  in 
good." 

THE  RECENT  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING 

Students  of  educational  history  are  aware  of  the  fact  that 
since  the  distinctively  classical  period  of  the  older  peoples  of 
Europe  there  have  been  periodical  awakenings  of  educa- 
tional interest  and  activity,  notably  in  the  Eighth,  Eleventh 
and  Sixteenth  Centuries.  The  first,  in  the  reign  of  Charle- 
magne, was  the  beginning  of  a  new  order,  under  the  special 
influence  of  Alcuin.  The  second  is  of  special  significance  as 
marking  the  rise  of  Universities,  with  all  which  that  im- 
plies in  the  development  of  European  civilization.  The  third 
derives  its  chief  importance  from  the  fact  that,  occurring 
in  the  Sixteenth  Century  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
it  opened  the  Modern  Educational  Era,  as  it  indeed  opened 
the  modern  era  in  its  widest  functions,  known  as  the  English 
Reformation  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  It  was  far  more 
than  English  in  its  promise,  a  real  European  awakening  all 
along  the  line  of  educational  interests — the  Golden  Age  of 
Humanism. 


156  Timely  Topics 

At  the  opening  of  the  Twentieth  Century  there  begins  the 
fourth  and  latest  Revival  of  Learning,  which  at  the  close  of 
the  second  decade  of  the  century  is  in  the  full  tide  of  its  ex- 
pression. Embracing  all  the  best  elements  of  preceding 
awakenings  and  including  additional  elements  of  its  own, 
it  already  gives  promise  of  surpassing  all  antecedent  move- 
ments in  the  area  of  its  operation,  in  the  value  and  utility  of 
the  interests  at  stake,  and  especially  within  the  province  of 
modern  education. 

I.  If  we  inquire  as  to  its  Scope,  it  is  nothing  less  than 
world-wide,  affecting  all  modern  states  and  peoples,  a  ver- 
itable International  Renaissance.  All  grades  of  institutions 
— primary,  secondary,  collegiate  and  university,  larger  and 
smaller  institutions,  privately  endowed  and  state  supported 
institutions,  denominational  and  undenominational,  for  men 
and  for  women,  liberal  and  technical,  are  included  in  this 
comprehensive  movement,  a  movement  particularly  pro- 
nounced in  America.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  this  new 
departure  is  quite  independent  of  the  late  war  as  a  deter- 
mining factor  in  its  origin,  its  inception  dating  well  back  to 
the  first  years  of  the  century,  gathering  momentum  as 
the  century  advanced,  only  accentuated  in  its  progress  and 
character  by  the  late  international  struggle.  Statistics  re- 
cently compiled  by  the  Institute  of  Public  Service  in 
America,  including  a  period  of  six  years  and  more  than 
two  hundred  colleges  and  universities,  reveal  the  unprece- 
dented growth  of  this  movement  and  its  ante-war  record 
as  fully  equal  to  later  growth.  Prophecies  as  to  what  a 
quarter  of  a  century  hence  may  reveal  as  to  this  expansion 
are  nothing  less  than  startling,  and  issue  the  summons  to 


The  Recent  Revival  of  Learning  157 

all  educational  agencies  to  prepare  the  way  for  this  phenom- 
enal revival.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  times  as  serious  as  it  is 
promising,  as  rich  in  its  responsibilities  as  in  its  recom- 
penses, an  opportunity  rarely  offered  to  any  generation,  and 
one  which  if  fully  met  and  utilized  will  make  a  hitherto 
unknown  contribution  to  what  Bacon  called  "The  Advance- 
ment of  Learning." 

II.  It  is  now  in  place  to  inquire  as  to  what  are  the  De- 
mands of  this  Revival,  which,  indeed,  will  require  "educa- 
tional statesmanship"  to  meet. 

1.  First  of  all,  a  New  Alignment  of  Educational  Forces 
and  Methods, — a  real  educational  reconstruction,  as  impera- 
tively needed  as  the  reconstruction  of  the  state,  so  as  to  har- 
monize with  new  conditions.  More  specifically,  what  is 
needed  is  a  preparation  of  the  people  for  the  world  of  to- 
day. If,  as  we  are  told,  "education  seeks  to  adjust  the 
individual  to  life,"  it  is  the  life  of  today — "keeping  ahead 
of  the  forward  movement  of  civilization" — the  establish- 
ment of  a  School  of  Life  for  the  twentieth  century  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  eighth  and  sixteenth.  Hence  a  substantive 
modification  of  educational  methods  and  aims  must  be  made, 
as  fully  in  keeping  with  the  time  as  the  methods  of  Alcuin 
and  Erasmus  were  in  keeping  with  the  ages  of  Charlemagne 
and  Elizabeth.  The  demand  is  for  educational  review 
and  revision  in  the  light  of  contemporary  history,  by  which 
the  varied  steps  of  educational  progress  may  be  acknowl- 
edged and  provision  made  for  their  expression.  This  will 
involve  not  only  a  re-examination  and  readjustment  of  edu- 
cational schedules,  but  a  far  closer  relationship  than  now 
exists  among  all  grades  of  schools — secondary,  collegiate 


158  Timely  Topics 

and  graduate,  so  that  the  public  schools  of  the  country,  the 
People's  University,  shall  have  a  vital  connection  through 
a  regular  gradation,  with  the  university  proper,  a  connection 
such  as  that  already  existing  in  countries  such  as  Germany, 
in  which  the  educational  institutions  are  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  state  and  responsible  thereto  for  their  ef- 
ficiency. 

2.  The  Concomitant  Development  of  Culture  and  Charac- 
ter, such  as  that  which  obtained  in  the  early  history  of  the 
country,  when  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  erected  the  school 
and  the  meeting  house  in  close  proximity,  as  necessary  to 
each  other,  as  interactive  agencies  in  the  building  of  the 
state.  A  Christian  education  in  the  well  understood  sense 
of  that  term  is  one  of  the  imperative  demands  of  this 
Revival.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  what  is  known  in  Eng- 
lish History  as  the  Revival  of  Learning  in  the  sixteenth 
century  and  the  opening  of  the  modern  world  was  a  dis- 
tinctively religious  movement  as  well  as  educational,  under 
the  unified  title  of  the  English  Reformation,  in  which  the 
great  leaders  of  the  time,  such  as  Erasmus  and  Cheke  dif- 
fused the  study  of  the  Greek  language  as  Hooker  and 
Knox  were  infusing  new  vigor  into  all  the  functions  of 
the  church. 

Apart  from  this  co-operation  of  the  secular  and  religious, 
this  great  Revival  of  Learning  as  Archbishop  Trench  asserts, 
might  have  been  a  questionable  blessing.  Education,  if  truly 
interpreted,  must  be  symmetrical — a  development  and  disci- 
pline of  the  whole  mind, — mind  and  heart  and  will  and  con- 
science, so  as  fully  to  meet  the  complex  responsibilities  to 
which  educated  men  will  be  called.     Education  is  far  more 


The  Recent  Revival  of  Learning  159 

than  mere  knowledge.  It  is  a  formation  of  character  and 
conduct,  a  preparation  for  life  in  all  its  variety  of  duty,  in- 
dividual and  social.  The  "New  Education"  so-called,  must 
justify  itself  before  a  new  world  as  a  Christian  education, 
unsectarian  and  vital,  based  on  the  great  fundamental  facts 
and  truths  of  revealed  religion  and  as  such  contributive  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  race. 

III.  The  beneficent  Results  of  such  a  Revival  of  Learn- 
ing are  evident. 

1.  First  of  all,  Education  as  a  Calling  is  at  once  lifted 
to  its  normal  level  of  honour  and  appreciation,  taking  its 
place  among  the  great  professional  activities  of  the  world, 
bringing  into  play  the  best  faculties  of  the  mind  and 
acknowledged  on  all  sides  as  a  necessary  factor  in  compas- 
sing the  high  ends  of  modern  life.  Teaching  thus  inter- 
preted is  more  than  a  mere  pedagogic  employment  for  im- 
perfectly prepared  incumbents  and  assumed  only  as  a  tem- 
porary expedient,  subordinate  to  some  higher  function.  The 
recent  establishment  at  Yale  University  of  a  Graduate  De- 
partment of  Education  is  in  the  right  direction,  whereby 
its  dignity  as  a  vocation  is  realized  and  adequate  provision 
made  for  a  supply  of  qualified  educators. 

In  the  higher  grades  of  instruction,  it  is,  in  all  particulars, 
one  of  the  liberal  professions  and  demanding  correspond- 
ing ability.  No  valid  Revival  of  Learning  can  be  instituted 
apart  from  such  a  conception  of  its  requirements. 

2.  Such  an  educational  awakening  will  diffuse  a  new  In- 
tellectual Spirit  through  all  the  functions  of  modern  life,  and 
will  prove  the  best  antidote  against  those  forms  of  gross 
materialism  which  have  become  so  conspicuous  in  contempo- 


160  Timely  Topics 

rary  history.  Just  here  it  is  interesting  to  note  what  the 
effect  of  the  World  War  has  been  in  opening  the  eyes  of 
multitudes  of  men  to  the  necessity  of  educational  equipment, 
if  so  be  they  are  at  all  adequately  to  meet  the  new  demands 
of  a  new  and  serious  age.  The  startling  deficiency  of  the 
American  soldiery  along  these  lines  as  evinced  in  the  various 
cantonments  and  schools  of  the  army  has  called  the  atten- 
tion of  the  government  and  the  nation  at  large  to  the  need 
of  an  immediate  reformation  and  has  stimulated  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  army  to  compass  this  needed  result.  So 
emphatic  is  this  awakening  that  the  War  Department  is  now 
inaugurating  a  movement  by  which  the  colleges  of  the  country 
may  make  full  or  partial  provision  for  the  education  of 
soldiers  chosen  on  the  ground  of  their  special  ability  and 
aptitude.  While  this,  at  first,  must  be  limited  in  its  scope, 
the  educational  fervor  will  deepen  and  widen  until  it  per- 
meates the  military  body  as  a  whole  and  leads  to  most  de- 
sirable results  in  the  proper  mental  training  of  the  soldiery. 
Outside  the  army,  however,  and  over  the  land  at  large,  this 
new  desire  will  express  itself  in  varied  forms  of  educational 
effort  and  the  body  politic  and  social  will  feel  at  once  the 
influence  of  the  stimulus  and  rise  to  ever  higher  levels. 

This  general  intellectual  quickening  is  one  of  the  dominant 
demands  of  the  day,  by  which  America  will  no  longer  be 
open  to  the  charge  of  national  well-being  along  merely  ma- 
terial lines  and  will  assume  a  mental  type  of  leadership  thor- 
oughly in  accordance  with  its  origin  and  destiny  as  a  people. 
Among  American  ideals  none  is  more  insistent  and  prom- 
ising than  those  of  the  subordination  of  a  purely  material 
civilization  to  a  higher  and  nobler  type,  in  which  the  intel- 


The  Recent  Revival  of  Learning  161 

lectual  demands  of  the  age  shall  be  more  and  more  fully- 
met. 

3.  A  further  result  of  this  Revival  of  Learning  will  ap- 
pear in  the  fact  that  it  will  form  the  best  Basis  of  American 
Democracy.  As  has  been  said,  "An  Illiterate  Democracy" 
is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  General  Intelligence  is  a  demo- 
cratic postulate,  without  which  free  governments  cannot  long 
subsist.  The  government  "of  the  people  and  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people"  must  be  broadly  based  on  an  enlightened 
public,  on  the  education  of  the  masses  at  large,  so  that  their 
expressed  will  shall  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the  nation. 

The  mediaeval  adage  that  "Ignorance  is  the  mother  of 
devotion"  has  long  since  been  displaced  by  the  adage  that 
"Knowledge  is  power" — power  in  the  best  sense  and  exer- 
cise of  it — power  to  think  and  act  intelligently.  Here  is  one 
of  the  dominant  and  serious  problems  of  the  American  world 
and  wherever  government  is  wholly  representative,  an  un- 
educated electorate  being  a  constant  danger  to  the  state. 
One  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  the  times,  is  the 
awakening  of  all  classes  of  the  people  to  this  necessity,  if 
so  be  Democracy  is  to  justify  itself  as  the  ideal  form  of 
government. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  educators  and  most  especially  in  col- 
legiate circles,  have  an  inspiring  mission  to  fulfill,  whereby 
the  American  Commonwealth  may  be  conspicuous  in  modern 
history  for  the  excellence  and  efficiency  of  its  educational 
system,  for  the  character  and  general  culture  of  its  citizen- 
ship and  thus  be  an  evermore  potential  factor  in  the  world's 
advancement.  It  is  a  heartening  thought  that  in  our  own 
land  and  the  world  over,  the  "Schoolmaster  is  abroad"  as 
never  before. 


1 62  Timely  Topics 

THE  EMPHASIS  OF  PRINCIPLES  IN 
LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

The  topic  of  interest  now  before  us  has  direct  reference  to 
the  vocation  of  teaching,  its  primary  method  and  purpose 
in  Higher  Education,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  results. 
This  is  one  of  those  open  questions  with  which  the  educator 
of  today  is  confronted  and  which  presses  more  and  more 
urgently  for  solution. 

I.  To  our  mind  the  answer  is  quite  beyond  tenable  doubt, 
the  primary  method  being  "The  Discovery  and  Exposition 
of  Principles"  as  distinct  from  the  emphasis  of  any  form 
of  detailed  or  pedagogical  data.  Whatever  may  be  the 
rightful  place  of  facts  and  detailed  knowledge  in  the  prov- 
ince of  elementary  and  secondary  instruction  this  is  but  sub- 
ordinate and  relative  within  the  domain  of  Liberal  Educa- 
tion, a  type  of  teaching  far  in  advance  of  anything  below  it 
and  in  thorough  accord  with  the  advanced  stages  of  the 
student's  progress.  Liberal  Education,  as  illustrated  in  our 
colleges  and  universities,  is  liberal  not  merely  in  the  sense 
of  being  general  and  comprehensive  in  the  diversity  of  sub- 
jects included,  but  liberal  in  its  method,  purpose  and  spirit, 
a  real  education  and  enfranchisement  of  the  intellect  so  as 
to  make  it  equal  to  the  high  behests  of  scholarly  life  as  they 
will  unavoidably  arise  as  the  years  pass  on.  This  higher 
method  may  be  amply  illustrated  in  every  separate  depart- 
ment of  collegiate  study. 

In  Philosophy,  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  mental 
life  and  action  are  stressed,  as  distinct  from  metaphysical 
facts  and  data.     Philosophy,  as  such,  is  viewed  and  eluci- 


Emphasis  of  Principles  in  Liberal  Education        163 

dated  in  its  primal  postulates  quite  distinct  from  the  mere 
History  of  Philosophy,  however  important  in  its  place  that 
may  be.  What  Herbert  Spencer  called  "First  Principles" 
are  here  mainly  in  evidence  as  distinct  from  any  possible  or 
desirable  application  of  such  principles  to  specific  and  con- 
crete phenomena.  What  Balfour  terms,  'The  Foundations 
of  Knowledge,"  are  studied  as  superior  to  any  type  of  super- 
structure imposed  thereon. 

So,  in  History,  the  governing  question  at  this  point  of 
view  is — What  are  the  great  vital  and  vitalizing  principles 
that  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  those  external  events  and  incidents 
that  we  call  History  and  which  serve  to  justify  and  explain 
them,  and  without  which  they  are  but  an  incoherent  assem- 
blage of  daily  occurrences.  We  speak,  and  speak  rightly, 
of  the  "Philosophy  of  History" — a  profound  and  searching 
inquiry  into  the  great  formative  causes  of  national  events 
and  progress,  an  order  of  inquiry  so  clearly  evinced  in  such 
historians  as  Schlegel,  Guizot,  Hallam  and  Buckle. 

So,  in  Social  and  Political  studies,  as  evinced  in  Spencer's 
"Principles  of  Sociology"  or  Kidd's  "Social  Evolution"  and 
in  Aristotle's  "Politik,"  a  study  of  the  first  principles  of 
social  and  political  organization,  an  interpretation  of  civic 
phenomena  far  below  any  visible  expression  of  them. 

So,  in  the  domain  of  Ethics,  of  Religious  Thought  and 
Life,  from  the  Ethics  of  Aristotle  to  Spencer's  "Principles 
of  Ethics"  and  Balfour's  "Foundations  of  Belief,"  where- 
in an  investigation  of  first  causes  is  instituted,  the  determin- 
ing factors  of  all  written  creeds  and  external  conduct — the 
Philosophy  of  Religion  as  presented  by  Caird.  It  is  a  sig- 
nificant  fact  that   in  the   Christian   Scriptures  this  is  the 


164  Timely  Topics 

dominant  method — the  fundamental  principles  of  human 
conduct  being  laid  down  with  no  attempt  whatever  to  apply 
them  concretely  to  the  daily  developing  life  of  the  individual. 

So,  in  the  sphere  of  Literature,  a  province  of  education 
in  which  right  methods  are  especially  needed — the  conten- 
tion being  that  what  DeQuincy  calls,  The  Literature  of 
Power,  should  supersede  and  control  the  Literature  of 
Knowledge.  Such  treatises  as  Courthope's  "Liberal  Move- 
ment in  English  Literature,"  Hugo's  Literature  and 
Philosophy,"  Knight's  "Studies  in  Philosophy  and  Litera- 
ture," Posnett's  "Comparative  Literature,"  Winchester's 
"Principles  of  Literary  Criticism,"  amply  illustrate  this 
higher  and  better  method  by  which  the  student  is  encour- 
aged to  look  beneath  all  visible  literary  phenomena  to  the 
causes  and  conditions  that  underlie  and  explain  them,  to 
make  what  Miiller  calls  the  Science  of  Thought  dominate 
what  Schopenhauer  calls  the  Art  of  Literature,  the  verbal 
expression  of  thought. 

In  fine,  there  is  scarcely  any  department  of  educational 
function  in  which  this  primacy  of  principle  should  not  be 
the  controlling  factor.  Though  there  is  a  sense  in  which 
in  the  teaching  of  Experimental  Science  and  the  Liberal 
Professions  of  Law  and  Medicine,  concrete  facts  and  data 
would  seem  to  be  mainly  in  evidence,  even  here  the  great 
principles  of  the  subjects  discussed  may  find  appropriate 
emphasis.  The  recent  discussion  in  this  country  as  to  the 
comparative  merits  in  juristic  teaching  of  emphasizing 
specific  legal  cases  as  concrete  illustrations  of  law,  or  that 
of  insisting  upon  the  priority  of  the  great  juristic  principles 
underlying  them,  reveals  the  importance  of  this  open  ques- 


Emphasis  of  Principles  in  Liberal  Education        165 

tion  and  has  served  to  confirm  the  superiority  of  the  latter 
method.  In  Science,  such  representative  educators  as  Agas- 
siz,  and  Guyot,  and  in  Law,  such  authorities  as  Rufus 
Choate  and  John  Marshall,  stressed  the  value  of  funda- 
mental principles  back  of  all  external  data,  while  even  in 
Schools  of  Divinity,  behind  and  below  all  verbal  embodi- 
ments of  doctrine,  the  supreme  validity  of  Fundamental 
Truth  is  taught.  It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  edu- 
cators and  authors,  the  world  over,  in  all  departments  of  in- 
struction and  expression,  can  be  classified  at  this  point,  as 
Bacon  and  Thomas  Arnold,  Coleridge  and  Emerson,  far  sur- 
pass such  authors  as  Macaulay,  Matthew  Arnold,  Pater  and 
Addison.  Such  great  educators  in  our  own  country  as 
Mark  Hopkins,  Arnold  Guyot,  Theodore  Dwight,  Wayland, 
and  Whitney,  were  great  in  that  generic  and  germinal  prin- 
ciples were  stressed  in  philosophy,  science,  jurisprudence, 
and  language  as  superior  to  any  collection  of  facts  and  data, 
teachers  whose  primary  purpose  it  was  to  give  to  the  stu- 
dent, first  of  all,  the  great  generalizations  that  were  de- 
ducible  from  all  the  facts  in  evidence. 

Modern  Higher  Education  is  in  no  greater  need  of  refor- 
mation than  in  this  special  sphere  of  Principles,  the  prevail- 
ing method  of  instruction  reversing  the  natural  order  and 
viewing  the  examination  of  details  as  first  in  evidence  and 
value.  The  method  is  historical,  biographical,  textual  and 
critical,  rather  than  philosophic,  and  the  student  is  left  at  the 
end  with  a  mass  of  ill-assorted  facts  and  conclusions,  un- 
related to  any  cardinal  principles  by  which  they  might  be 
unified,  coordinated  and  made  applicable  to  all  contingent 
needs.     No  sphere  of  instruction  has  suffered  more  at  this 


1 66  Timely  Topics 

point  than  Literature,  so  largely  studied  and  taught  by  a 
kind  of  piecemeal,  fragmentary  process,  informing  the 
mind  of  the  student  at  the  expense  of  any  logical  process. 
The  Plays  of  Shakespeare  and  the  verse  of  Milton  are 
minutely  examined  in  line  and  letter  and  artistic  construc- 
tion, textually  and  philologically,  quite  aside  from  an  exam- 
ination of  those  fundamental  laws  that  lie  at  the  basis  of 
the  drama  and  epic.  Literary  Criticism  is  the  dominant 
subject  and  on  the  side  of  verbal  technique  and  of  literature 
as  an  art.  In  the  sphere  of  English  Composition  this  error 
of  method  is  conspicuous,  a  requisition  of  themes  and  essays, 
quite  irrespective  of  those  generic  principles  of  written  ex- 
pression which  Herbert  Spencer  emphasizes  in  his  "Philoso- 
phy of  Style."  The  great  laws  of  expression  laid  down  by 
Aristotle,  Bain  and  Whately,  are  subordinated  to  an  unin- 
telligent practice  in  the  art  of  composition,  forgetful  of  what 
DeOuincy  in  his  "Rhetoric  and  Style"  shows  us  as  to  how 
to  write  effectively. 

In  the  sphere  of  Philosophy,  hair-splitting  distinctions 
between  this  and  that  author,  or  system,  a  purely  speculative 
treatment  of  philosophic  theories  made  in  Germany  is  given 
the  student  in  the  place  of  those  primary  metaphysical  laws 
that  lie  behind  all  forms  of  mental  process.  The  main 
danger  in  the  modern  system,  known  as  Pragmatism,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  as  pragmatic  the  purely  practical  side  of  psycho- 
logic study  will  be  emphasized  at  the  expense  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  fundamental.  It  is  sometimes  asked  whether 
Modern  Higher  Education  has  made  any  perceptible  ad- 
vance over  the  methods  and  results  of  a  half-century  ago. 
Whatever  the  answer  to  this  question  may  be,  and  conced- 


Emphasis  of  Principles  in  Liberal  Education        167 

ing  that,  taking  education  in  its  widest  sense  and  scope,  a 
decided  progress  has  been  made,  this  much  is  clear,  that 
the  subordination  of  principles  to  facts  and  theories  in  con- 
temporary teaching  has  in  so  far  marked  a  real  decadence 
and  is  training  a  generation  of  students  possessed  of  a  less 
distinctive  philosophic  order  of  mind  than  the  graduates 
of  fifty  years  ago.  They  know  far  more,  but  do  far  less 
profound  and  profitable  thinking. 

Some  of  the  benefits  of  this  Higher  Method  may  be  cited: 

1.  Mental  Discipline  is  first  in  order — a  real  intellectual 
gymnastic  as  distinct  from  a  mere  acquisition  of  educational 
data.  Mental  training  is,  after  all,  the  ultimate  end  of  edu- 
cation quite  irrespective  of  this  or  that  acquisition  or  attain- 
ment. What  Miiller  calls  the  Science  of  Thought,  is  the 
dominant  factor,  so  that,  as  Huxley  phrases  it,  "the  intel- 
lect is  a  clear  logic  engine  with  all  the  parts  of  equal  strength 
and  in  working  order."  The  making  of  thinkers  is  the  ideal 
of  education. 

2.  A  further  benefit  is  that  of  Initiative  and  Independence 
of  Judgment,  by  which  the  student  is  encouraged  and  en- 
abled, in  any  case  that  may  arise,  to  apply  basic  principles  in 
his  own  way.  There  is  nothing  here  of  a  kind  of  educa- 
tion made  to  order  and  warranted  to  produce  specific  results 
when  applied,  but  an  order  of  training  that  simply  builds  the 
basis  for  the  superstructure,  furnishes  the  necessary  guid- 
ance to  the  student  in  his  personal  researches,  develops  and 
preserves  individual  freedom  and  thus  ensures  the  best  pos- 
sible mental  results. 

3.  It  is  at  once  apparent  that  such  a  method  awakens  and 
sustains  Interest,  whereby  all  educational  processes  are  at 


1 68  Timely  Topics 

once  freed  from  all  that  is  indifferent,  mechanical  and 
unprofitable  and  the  student  is  incited  to  his  best  mental 
endeavor.  Nothing  less  than  Inspiration  is  the  direct  result, 
the  emancipation  and  broadening  of  every  intellectual  fac- 
ulty and  function.  It  is  only  such  a  type  of  training,  basic 
and  not  superficial,  that  is  enduring  and  compensating. 
Education  is  essentially  grilndlich,  as  the  Germans  term  it. 
We  are  living  in  an  era  of  unwonted  educational  activity. 
The  intellectual  world  at  large  is  aflame  with  interest  as  to 
what  the  best  methods  and  aims  of  mental  training  are  and 
real  thinkers  are  in  demand  to  discuss  and  decide  the  pend- 
ing problems  that  have  recently  emerged  out  of  the  turmoil 
of  the  time.  Upon  the  centres  of  Liberal  Learning,  as  never 
before,  the  eyes  of  a  waiting  world  are  fixed  and  the  solemn 
obligation  rests  upon  them  to  furnish  year  by  year  a  body 
of  men  who  are  really  educated,  mentally  trained  in  the 
fundamental  processes  of  thought  and  able  to  bring  to  bear 
on  any  issue  presented  to  them  an  intellectual  type  of  treat- 
ment. Never  were  world  conditions  so  unsettled,  and  what 
is  now  in  demand  above  all  else  is  the  stabilizing  of  all 
human  functions  and  forces — the  actual  settlement  of 
the  mental  and  moral  and  social  order  of  the  world.  To 
further  such  an  end  as  this  is  the  high  privilege  and  duty 
of  every  real  educator. 

THE  MODERN  AGE  OF  UNREST 

Every  age  may  be  said  to  have  its  individuality,  its  special 
historic  type,  which  it  is  the  business  of  the  historian  to  ob- 
serve and  describe.  This  twentieth  century  in  which  we  are 
living  is  notably  an  Age  of  Unrest,  of  action  and  reaction,  of 


The  Modern  Age  of  Unrest  169 

ebb  and  flow,  of  cross-currents  and  acute  conflicting  inter- 
ests, so  as  to  baffle,  at  times,  all  attempts  to  study  and  com- 
prehend them.  The  events  of  one  day  are  no  criterion  as 
to  what  may  issue  on  the  morrow  and  the  observer  must 
content  himself  with  what  he  can  catch  by  hasty  glances  at 
this  ceaseless  shifting  of  actor  and  scene.  The  occurrences 
are  nothing  less  than  dramatic. 

If  we  inquire  into  the  Causes  of  such  an  era  of  agitation, 
a  partial  explanation  may  be  found. 

1.  In  the  Constitution  of  Human  Nature,  in  obedience  to 
which  a  certain  degree  of  unrest  is  not  only  possible  but 
unavoidable  and  desirable  in  the  line  of  a  legitimate  aspira- 
tion toward  better  and  better  conditions,  a  dissatisfaction 
with  any  result  hitherto  secured,  with  any  conditions  now 
existing.  Apart  from  such  discontent  there  could  be  no 
real  advance  along  the  lines  of  civic  and  social  order.  It 
is  an  infallible  indication  of  vigor  and  vitality.  But  the 
present  era  of  unrest  must  be  accounted  for  on  other 
grounds,  by  reason  of  its  extreme  type  and  expression,  run- 
ning quite  athwart  all  precedent,  ignoring  or  violating  all 
the  ordinary  processes  of  progress  and  conspicuous  by  its 
very  irregularity  and  excess.  It  is  thus  that  we  are  forced 
to  observe  a  different  origin  so  as  to  account  for  universal 
conditions. 

2.  Thus  we  find  in  the  recent  World  War,  in  its  distinctive 
and  disintegrating  effects, — breaking  down  all  barriers, 
testing  all  accepted  standards,  shaking  all  foundations, 
questioning  all  facts  and  formulas,  and  insisting  that  the 
civilized  world  must  build  all  over  again  the  established 
order  and  usher  in  a  new  and  presumably  a  better  age.     If 


170  Timely  Topics 

every  war  is  in  reality  a  Revolution,  this  international  con- 
flict has  been  emphatically  so,  volcanic  in  its  violence,  so  as 
to  institute  a  condition  of  constant  eruption.  In  every 
sphere  and  phase  of  national  life,  the  time  has  been  "out 
of  joint."  So  extraordinary  are  the  issues,  that  what  we 
call  Crises  have  become  events  of  common  occurrence  and 
men  and  nations  live  in  daily  expectation  of  the  incredible. 
The  only  result  that  is  sure  to  happen  is  the  unexpected. 
The  outcome  of  all  this  irregularity,  it  is  clear  to  see,  is 
Unrest,  of  the  most  pronounced  type,  a  state  of  mental  and 
emotive  tension,  altogether  abnormal  and  excessive,  so  that 
life  is  passed,  for  the  time  being,  in  a  kind  of  bewilderment 
and  nothing  serves  to  admit  of  solution  and  settled  form. 

The  most  lamentable  legacy  of  the  late  war  is  this  Era 
of  Unrest.  It  is  a  significant  comment  on  this  condition 
that  as  the  late  Mr.  Howells  conducted  for  years  a  literary 
department  in  Harper's  under  the  title  "The  Easy  Chair," 
it  is  now  one  of  the  functions  of  The  Forum  to  give  us  a 
monthly  record  under  the  title  "The  Uneasy  Chair."  It  is 
this  uneasiness  that  has  become  the  prevailing  temper  of  the 
time, — a  veritable  World  Dis-Ease, — a  genuine  neurasthen- 
ic disorder — a  shattering  of  the  world's  nerves,  and  attended, 
unless  checked,  with  dire  distress. 

Some  of  the  Characteristics  of  this  Unrest  may  be  cited : 
1.  Change,  for  the  mere  sake  of  change,  be  the  conse- 
quences what  they  may.  Anything,  it  is  plausibly  argued, 
would  be  an  improvement  over  that  which  is.  The  call 
is  for  Re-adjustment,  a  beginning  all  over  again.  The 
Old  Order  must  give  way,  even  though  succeeded  by  an  in- 
ferior one.    It  is,  in  fine,  the  rampant  spirit  of  Radicalism 


The  Modern  Age  of  Unrest  171 

at  all  costs,  the  levelling  of  all  distinction,  the  erasure  of 
all  landmarks,  a  re-drawing  of  the  world's  map, — a  turn- 
ing the  world  upside  down,  with  no  specific  plan  whatso- 
ever to  set  it  right.  In  church  and  state,  in  politics  and 
social  order,  in  the  industries,  in  education,  and  the  church 
itself,  standards  count  for  nothing,  and  the  Roman  motto 
is  in  force — "The  times  are  changing  and  we  must  change 
with  them." 

2.  A  further  Characteristic  is  seen  in  The  Desire  for  Im- 
mediate Results,  by  the  operation  of  which  all  intermediate 
stages  are  ignored.  No  allowance  is  made  for  the  thor- 
oughly normal  and  hitherto  accepted  process  of  transition, 
but  a  violent  leap  must  be  made  over  all  intervening  spaces, 
between  the  past  and  the  future,  if  so  be  tangible  and  prac- 
tical results  may  be  readily  reached.  In  direct  contravention 
of  the  order  of  Providence  in  the  government  of  the  world, 
or  the  order  of  nature  and  history  in  its  best  developments, 
it  stoutly  denies  the  validity  of  the  gradational  and  adopts 
the  violent  regime  of  revolution  and  reaction.  Under  the 
laudable  principle  of  Reform  it  insists  upon  its  own  method 
of  reformation,  by  which  a  slow  and  safe  advance  must 
yield  to  rapid  movement  and  moderate  measures  to  a  kind 
of  lawless  liberalism.  This  is  a  form  of  procedure  that 
at  this  moment  is  begetting  chaotic  conditions,  the  final  issue 
of  which  may  be  attended  by  untold  evils. 

3.  An  additional  feature  of  this  Unrest  is  seen  in  The 
Supremacy  of  Selfish  Interests  over  all  benevolent  and  gen- 
erous impulses.  Whenever  personal  profit  and  the  general 
good  conflict,  there  is  no  hesitation  in  subordinating  the 
latter  to  the  former.    It  is  the  autocracy  of  avarice  over  all 


172  Timely  Topics 

competing  and  counter  claims.  It  is  this  colossal  evil  as 
expressed  in  national  and  international  relations  that  is  the 
sufficient  explanation  of  most  of  the  wars  which  in  the 
course  of  history  have  devastated  the  world.  Back  of  the 
so-called  defence  of  national  honor  and  the  maintenance 
of  national  integrity,  there  has  almost  invariably  been  the 
economic  factor,  so  prevalently  and  perniciously  potent  as 
to  make  the  nation's  purely  financial  and  industrial  inter- 
ests the  controlling  principle.  It  is  this  tyranny  of  trade 
that  has  so  often  forced  the  final  issue  of  war,  the  intolerant 
demand  that  an  open  door  must  be  made  for  any  particular 
people's  commerce,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they  may 
to  other  peoples.  Despite  high-sounding  phrases  as  to  na- 
tional and  international  reciprocity,  special  corporate  inter- 
ests finally  prevail  and  the  philanthropic  doctrine  of  Al- 
truism is  permanently  ignored.  Much  of  the  Chronic  Rest- 
lessness of  modern  life,  personal  and  general,  is  the  Rest- 
lessness of  Greed,  a  state  of  mind  in  ceaseless  agitation  and 
ferment  lest  it  may  be  thwarted  in  its  inordinate  ambition 
to  advance  at  any  cost  its  selfish  and  sordid  interests. 

The  Consequences  of  such  Unrest  are  not  far  to  find. 

1.  It  is  directly  conducive  to  the  Pessimistic  Temper. 
Nothing  as  it  now  exists  is  of  value.  Any  possible  good 
lies  in  the  future,  and  even  there  the  outlook  is  dim  and 
forbidding.  Instead  of  Browning's  assertion  that  the  world 
"means  intensely  and  means  good,"  evil  is  the  dominant 
factor,  and  the  devil  is  on  the  throne.  No  individual  and 
general  optimism  can  possibly  obtain,  as  long  as  this  feverish 
Unrest  remains  the  bitter  foe  of  anything  like  faith  and 
courage  and  hope  and  peace. 


The  Modern  Age  of  Unrest  173 

2.  Mental  and  Moral  Decadence  is  a  further  consequence 
of  Unrest,  a  gradual  disintegration  of  wholesome  tissue, 
until  the  subject  of  it  becomes  incapable  of  any  high  order 
of  effort.  It  is  this  deteriorating  factor  in  men  and  nations 
that,  unless  checked  in  its  harmful  influence,  will  sound  what 
Little  calls  "The  Doom  of  Modern  Civilization"  and  some 
Gibbon  will  arise  to  write  its  Decline  and  Fall.  The  multi- 
plication of  what  may  be  called,  Mental  Infirmaries,  is  con- 
clusive and  ominous  evidence  of  this  growing  discontent 
which  tends  to  disorganize  both  body  and  mind. 

3.  Such  Unrest  is  the  natural  and  inevitable  parent  of 
Uncertainty,  so  that  there  can  be  no  such  desirable  result 
as  Settled  Conditions.  Nothing  can  be  taken  for  granted 
as  finally  adjusted  and  consequent  plans  to  be  adopted  based 
on  fixed  and  permanent  results.  Instead  of  the  positive, 
there  is  the  negative;  instead  of  confidence,  only  doubt;  in- 
stead of  stability,  instability ;  and  it  cannot  be  known  where 
to  find,  at  any  given  time,  persons  or  peoples.  The  modern 
world,  at  large,  is  at  the  moment  in  this  perilous  mood  of 
vacillation,  midway  between  extremes,  the  easy  prey  of  any 
destructive  agency. 

The  favorite  song  of  the  soldiers  in  the  late  war,  "Where 
do  we  go  from  here"  is  a  fitting  medley  for  the  world  at 
large.  Where  we  are  now  and  whither  bound,  who  of  us 
can  tell,  so  variant  are  the  voices  that  we  hear,  so  diverse 
the  signals  that  we  see.  The  nations  are  indeed  at  the  Cross- 
Roads,  and  not  until  conditions  are  stabilized,  will  it  be 
known,  whither  we  are  bound  and  the  words  of  Clough 
are  confirmed: 


174  Timely  Topics 

"Where  lies  the  land  to  which  the  ship  would  go? 
Far,  far  ahead  is  all  her  seamen  know. 
Where  lies  the  land  she  travels  from?    Away 
Far,  far  behind  is  all  that  they  can  say." 

What  are  the  Correctives  of  this  disastrous  temper  of  the 
world  today? 

1.  First  of  all,  a  Valid  Conservatism,  a  full  appreciation 
and  utilization  of  existing  factors  of  progress,  a  stout  and, 
if  need  be,  stubborn  resistance  against  changing  the  present 
order,  until  a  new  and  better  order  is  seen  to  be  possible. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  The  Essential  Values — a  real  and 
abiding  ground-work  far  below  all  that  is  transient.  There 
are  some  truths  that  are  still  true,  some  realities  that  are  still 
real,  and  on  which  therefore  men  and  nations  may  safely 
count  and  rely. 

2.  An  additional  corrective  may  be  found  in  Recognition 
of  The  Law  of  Gradational  Progress  as  opposed  to  sudden 
and  violent  transition.  This  is  the  divinely  appointed  and 
natural  law.  The  orderly  movements  of  the  planets  and  the 
seasons,  the  gradual  growth  of  all  organisms  from  their 
feeblest  beginnings  to  full  maturity,  the  principle  of  sequence 
in  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  all  confirm  the 
essential  importance  of  development  by  regular  stages.  As 
has  been  said  "Continuity  is  as  essential  to  law,  society  and 
institutions  as  progress  itself."  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that 
all  permanent  progress  is  based  upon  it.  The  unreasonable 
demand  for  rapid  results  so  characteristic  of  the  age  is  thus 
rebuked  and  men  and  nations  are  enjoined  to  exercise  the 
saving  grace  of  patience  if  so  be  the  desirable  ends  are  to 
be  secured. 

3.  Still  another  Corrective  of  Unrest  is  seen  in  the  exer- 


The  Modern  Age  of  Unrest  175 

cise  of  the  Altruistic  Spirit,  as  distinct  from  that  of  Self- 
Seeking,  a  real  Communism  fraught  with  untold  blessing 
to  the  world.  Instead  of  a  heartless  and  lawless  monopoly 
under  the  baneful  influence  of  which  all  the  finer  feelings 
of  a  people  are  stifled,  the  best  elements  of  human  nature 
assert  themselves  in  the  establishment  of  what  may  be  called 
a  world-wide  Fraternity  or  Comradeship, — a  veritable 
League  of  Nations,  quite  independent  of  merely  diplomatic 
or  official  character,  but  broadly  based  on  the  principle  of 
individual  aims  and  comity,  whereby  the  common  interest  is 
exalted  above  special  interest,  the  weaker  peoples  protected 
and  enriched  by  the  stronger  peoples,  cooperation  exalted 
above  mere  competition  and  a  new  era  of  a  genuine  Social- 
ism ushered  in. 

4.  To  all  which  Correctives  might  be  added  the  Revival 
and  Invigoration  of  the  Moral  Forces  of  the  World,  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love  and  conscience,  of  the  cardinal  virtues 
of  the  soul,  of  all  that  goes  to  constitute  personal  and  na- 
tional character,  a  restoration  of  the  primitive  and  basal 
elements  of  a  revealed  religion. 

Nothing  will  do  more  to  relieve  the  restlessness  of  the 
time,  than  a  restatement  and  reinforcement  of  those  moral 
qualities  whose  possession  is  the  surest  guarantee  of  peace. 

Such,  as  we  conceive  them,  are  the  Causes,  Character- 
istics, Consequences  and  Correctives  of  that  spirit  of  Unrest 
which  is  a  dominant  feature  of  the  modern  world,  and  in 
no  nation  more  dominant  than  in  our  own, — a  conspicuous 
American  type,  not  confined  to  any  one  class,  rich  or  poor, 
high  or  low,  but  representative  of  all  orders  of  the  people 
and  expressing  itself  in  multiform  phases,  the  Malady  of 


176  Timely  Topics 

Unrest,  a  real  social  epidemic,  that  must  be  radically  cor- 
rected if  the  nation  is  to  have  a  healthy  corporate  life  and 
exercise  a  healthful  influence  over  a  restless  world. 

The  greatest  need  of  the  world  today  is  Rest. — Rest  from 
the  ravages  of  war  and  rest  from  the  ravages  of  worry,  na- 
tional and  individual — Quietude  under  the  benign  effects 
of  which  the  orderly  and  beneficent  procession  of  life  will 
go  on  with  ever  increasing  efficiency  and  the  biblical 
prophecy  be  fulfilled  when  "Knowledge  and  wisdom  will  be 
the  stability  of  the  time."  It  is  this  stabilizing  of  an  un- 
stable world  on  which  the  future  of  civilization  depends 
and  to  this  desired  end  it  is  the  duty  of  all  peoples  to  con- 
tribute. 

As  Mr.  Sumner  in  his  memorable  address  "On  The  True 
Grandeur  of  Nations"  eloquently  stated  it — "Let  the  bugles 
sound  the  Truce  of  God."  It  is  this  Truce  of  God  for 
which  this  restless  world  is  waiting,  for  that  peace  which, 
as  Professor  Sloane  has  stated  it,  "is  the  Test  of  Our 
Democracy." 


V 


THE  ACADEMIC  POINT  OF  VIEW 

The  words,  Academy  and  Academic,  reveal  in  their  verbal 
history  a  wide  variety  of  usage  and  meaning.  Back  in  the 
days  of  Greek  philosophy  they  were  significant  of  Plato  and 
his  School,  discussing  the  great  problems  of  metaphysics. 
In  France,  at  the  time  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  the  Academy 
was  the  centre  of  the  titled  scholars  of  the  country — the 
Academicians  as  they  were  called,  whose  main  business,  at 
first,  was  the  preservation  of  the  purity  of  the  French  lan- 
guage. 

In  later  educational  usage,  the  Academy  is  an  institution 
midway  between  the  primary  school  and  the  college,  prac- 
tically synonymous  with  the  secondary  school  of  our  day. 
In  modern  collegiate  usage,  Academic  Courses  of  study  are 
those  that  are  contrasted  with  the  scientific  and  technical, 
the  classical  studies  by  way  of  distinction,  leading  to  the 
A.B.  degree. 

In  the  phrase,  the  Academic  Mind,  a  new  significance  is 
noted,  a  type  of  mind  unique  in  its  nature,  method  of  work- 
ing and  governing  end,  and  which,  as  such,  calls  for  a  care- 
ful examination  as  to  its  characteristics  and  causes.  In  com- 
mon usage,  it  indicates  a  point  of  view  peculiar  to  scholars 
and  so  peculiar  as  to  be  in  large  part,  it  is  said,  out  of  line 
with  the  prevailing  and  popular  currents  of  thought. 

This  popular  meaning  assigned  to  the  word  academic  may 

177 


178  Timely  Topics 

be  amply  illustrated.  Thus,  a  modern  author  (Freedman) 
writes :  "The  fear  of  those  promoting  the  improvement  of 
public  administration  has  been  that  the  theorizing  and  book- 
ishness  of  the  academic  school  would  be  carried  over  into 
this  field.  We  should  then  produce  mere  doctrinaires, 
theorists,  dreamers. 

"We  are  asked,"  he  adds  "to  interpret  the  life  around  us 
out  of  books  which  are  antiquated  before  their  ink  is  dry." 

"In  December,  1918,"  we  are  told,  "Mr.  Wilson  said  in 
London  that  while  at  first  he  had  been  accused  of  being  aca- 
demic in  his  interest  in  the  League  now  we  find  the  prac- 
tical minds  of  the  world  determined  to  have  it."  Mr. 
Lowell,  in  his  paper  on  "Democracy,"  writes,  "The  great 
question  of  suffrage  is  no  longer  the  academic  but  rather 
the  practical  one."  The  celebrated  consensus  of  German 
scholars  and  professors  relative  to  the  World  War  affords 
a  signal  illustration  of  this  reactionary  and  pedantic  state  of 
mind — this  strictly  academic  point  of  view. 

Some  of  the  alleged  Characteristics  of  this  Academic 
Point  of  View  may  be  cited : 

1.  It  is  called  Traditional,  as  distinct  from  being  Pro- 
gressive and  Modern,  the  mediaeval  order  of  mind,  quite 
out  of  touch  and  sympathy  with  the  ever  changing  and 
advancing  movements  of  history.  Its  point  of  view  remains 
fixed,  unaffected  by  passing  events  and  processes.  It  insists 
on  the  primacy  of  the  older  eras  as  older  and  approaches 
and  discusses  pending  problems  from  the  past  as  the  essential 
background  and  basis  of  argument. 

2.  It  is  called  Visionary,  as  distinct  from  being  Practical 
and  Efficient,  a  purely  speculative  or  theoretical  order  of 


The  Academic  Point  of  View  179 

mind,  dwelling  and  working  in  the  area  of  the  imaginative 
and  fanciful,  quite  unconcerned  as  to  what  may  or  may  not 
be  the  outcome  of  it  all.  It  is  the  romantic  and  not  the 
realistic  type  of  mental  action,  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
Kantian  philosophy  in  the  domain  of  "Pure  Reason,"  but 
not  in  that  of  the  "Practical  Reason."  In  this  particular, 
as  nowhere  else,  have  scholars  been  the  subject  of  emphatic 
criticism,  the  demand  being  that  they  emerge  from  their 
chosen  world  of  the  ideal  and  come  out  into  the  open  and 
down  to  the  lower  levels  of  the  actual  and  deal  with  the 
facts  and  verities  of  modern  life.  As  Durant  expresses  it, 
"They  suffer  from  Academitis — overfondness  for  themes." 

3.  It  is  said  to  be  Dogmatic,  as  distinct  from  being  Tol- 
erant, an  order  of  mind  practically  closed  to  the  incoming 
and  influence  of  new  ideas  or  of  any  class  of  ideas  not  in 
harmony  with  its  accepted  tenets.  It  has  long  since,  we  are 
told,  and  once  for  all  reached  and  tabulated  its  conclusions 
on  fundamental  questions,  and  practically  refuses,  in  the 
light  of  new  evidence,  to  reconsider  its  position  and  take 
new  ground  when  demanded.  What  is  called  the  progress 
of  thought  is  dependent  upon  and  subordinate  to  the  ac- 
cepted deliverances  of  the  past  and  cannot  be  safely  or  even 
consistently  modified.  This  is  the  Ipse  Dixit  of  the  Schools, 
— a  final  decision  of  the  Court  which  precludes  the  re-open- 
ing of  the  question. 

4.  It  is  styled  a  Local  mind,  as  distinct  from  being  Com- 
prehensive, quite  opposed  to  making  the  bounds  of  truth 
and  knowledge  wider  yet  as  the  years  go  on.  Its  vision,  it 
is  said,  is  one-eyed  and  its  field  of  operation  limited  by  the 
narrow  range  of  the  present  and  the  visible  environment. 


180  Timely  Topics 

Hence  its  action  is  always  circumscribed,  committed  to  keep- 
ing within  its  definitely  marked  boundaries,  lest  it  diverge 
into  dangerous  extremes.  The  rational  doctrine  of  neces- 
sary mental  limitations  is  pressed  to  an  extreme  and  thought 
is  made  a  prisoner  for  life. 

Such  are  the  alleged  salient  Characteristics  of  the  Aca- 
demic Mind,  as  we  hear  them  cited.  It  is  Traditionary, 
Visionary,  Dogmatic  and  Local,  and,  as  such,  receives  the 
pronounced  protest  of  the  outside  world.  To  express  its 
various  features  in  a  single  word  of  current  use,  it  is  the 
Pedantic  mind,  an  order  of  mind  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
modern,  the  practical,  the  tolerant  and  comprehensive  type. 
Rightly  or  wrongly,  the  world  of  scholars  has  suffered  im- 
mensely hitherto  from  this  prevailing  view  as  to  their  status 
and  mental  habit,  in  the  light  of  the  world's  rapidly  varying 
thought  and  life,  especially  pronounced,  we  are  told,  in  the 
sphere  of  historical,  political  and  economic  studies,  where 
the  conclusions  reached,  it  is  said,  are  purely  "academic," 
that  is  to  say,  purely  theoretical  and  inapplicable  to  existing 
needs  and  as  such  to  be  ignored  by  the  outside  world  as 
useless.  Furthermore,  it  is  alleged,  its  presence  and  influence 
are  far  too  potent  in  the  spheres  of  literature  and  philoso- 
phy. One  of  the  most  frequent  objections  to  the  retention 
of  classical  studies  in  their  original  measure  is  found  in  the 
assertion  that  as  such  they  serve  to  foster  the  mediaeval 
point  of  view,  to  the  detriment  of  that  later  and  wider  out- 
look which  is  supposed  to  accompany  the  development  of 
history. 

If  we  seek  for  Causes  of  this  order  of  mind,  in  so 
far  as  it  has  hitherto  obtained,  one  or  two  may  be  cited. 


The  Academic  Point  of  View  181 

i.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  it  is  due,  in  part,  to  what 
may  be  called  the  Isolated  Life  of  the  scholar,  shut  in  as  he 
is,  within  the  confines  of  the  study  and  the  library.  As  a 
man  of  books,  by  way  of  distinction,  he  is  perforce,  by  the 
very  nature  of  his  calling,  mainly  confined  to  the  inside  area 
of  the  student's  life,  as  contemplative  rather  than  active, 
subjective  rather  than  objective,  dealing  with  the  inner  pro- 
cesses of  thought  and  the  solution  of  mental  and  educa- 
tional problems  rather  than  with  the  pressing  questions  of 
the  outside  work-a-day  world.  His  very  vocation  demands 
seclusion,  and  any  emergence  therefrom  by  way  of  a  per- 
sonal participation  in  the  shifting  currents  of  the  world's 
daily  life  would  seem  to  be  a  deviation  from  his  normal 
and  natural  duties. 

2.  Moreover,  a  partial  explanation  of  this  type  of  mind 
may  be  found  in  the  Unchallenged  Deliverances  of  the  study 
and  classroom,  where  the  scholar  as  an  educator  speaks  in  an 
ex-cathedra  manner  giving  to  his  students  what  are  assumed 
to  be  final  judgments  on  subjects  at  issue.  The  educator  by 
his  very  position  and  calling  is  supposed  to  speak  with  un- 
questioned authority,  his  conclusions  as  reached  in  his  study, 
being  outside  the  province  of  appeal  and  debate.  It  is  the 
supposed  duty  of  those  sitting  at  his  feet  to  receive  and  en- 
dorse his  instructions  without  gainsaying.  At  no  point  in 
an  educator's  life,  or  a  student's  life,  is  there  greater  danger 
than  just  here,  by  which  the  teacher  as  an  official  guide  is 
supposed  to  speak  without  a  word  of  challenge  and  the 
student  is  supposed  to  listen  without  the  privilege  of  chal- 
lenge. It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  Academic  Mind 
has  been  so  often  interpreted  in  the  sense  we  have  indicated. 


1 82  Timely  Topics 

A  significant  fact  now  clearly  evident  is  that  of  a  Pro- 
nounced Modification  of  this  Point  of  View  in  the  line  of  a 
more  modern,  practical,  catholic  and  comprehensive  outlook, 
in  a  word,  the  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  Academic 
Mind  as  hitherto  expressed  of  the  new  conditions  now  pre- 
vailing, and  the  necessary  adjustment  to  these  conditions. 

i.  This  radical  and  desirable  change  has  been  induced,  in 
part,  by  what  may  be  called  the  Progress  of  Thought — the 
gradual  departure  from  antecedent  standards  and  conditions 
to  the  rapidly  developing  processes  of  contemporary  thought, 
in  fine,  by  the  enfranchisement  of  the  mind  and  the  widen- 
ing of  all  its  functions.  This  is  in  no  sense  a  discarding  of 
anything  in  the  past  which  is  fundamental,  and,  as  such, 
worthy  of  retention  but  simply  an  insistence  that  there  is 
such  a  phenomenon  as  progress  in  the  course  of  history,  that 
such  progress  must  be  acknowledged,  and  that  existing  needs 
cannot  be  met  by  traditional  agencies,  methods  and  aims. 

2.  Here  again,  as  an  underlying  agency  we  are  bound  to 
recognize  the  definite  influence  of  the  recent  World  War, 
in  the  line  of  liberalizing  all  mental  and  social  processes.  In 
no  sphere  has  this  been  more  apparent  than  in  that  of  the 
scholarly  world,  whereby,  as  never  before,  and  indeed  for 
the  first  time,  men  of  letters  and  men  of  affairs  have  been 
brought  into  sympathetic  and  effective  union,  resulting  in 
an  increasingly  intelligent  commercial  constituency  and  an 
increasingly  practical  educational  constituency.  There  is, 
to  our  mind,  no  more  promising  result  of  the  late  tragic 
catastrophe  than  this  liberation  of  that  academic  mind  which 
for  generations  has  opposed  all  such  widening  of  function, 
and  by  which  it  is  vitally  coordinated  with  all  the  other 


Successful  Teaching  183 

wholesome  processes  of  civilization  and  the  everyday  life 
of  the  modern  world. 

Its  special  promise  lies  in  the  fact  that  this  change  of  out- 
look and  activity  is  thoroughly  in  keeping  with  that  world- 
wide movement  toward  the  combination  and  co-operation  of 
all  helpful  agencies  which  is  the  dominant  tendency  of  the 
time.  It  is  simply  another  form  of  evolution,  only  applied 
within  the  sphere  of  the  intellectual  and  educational.  Higher 
Education,  so-called,  has  needed  no  modifying  factor  more 
than  this,  by  which  the  cloister  has  given  place  to  the  open 
forum  of  free  discussion,  by  which  the  study  and  exchange 
have  come  to  a  mutual  understanding  and  will  cooperate  for 
common  ends.  Henceforth  the  academic  point  of  view  is 
nation-wide  and  world-wide,  catholic  and  comprehensive 
enough  to  embrace  every  human  interest  and  thus  minister 
to  the  daily  progress  of  the  race. 


SUCCESSFUL  TEACHING 

It  must  readily  be  conceded  by  those  who  have  carefully 
observed  the  history  and  status  of  education  that  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  the  special  vocation 
of  teaching  there  are  comparatively  few  who  may  be  said 
to  be  masters  of  the  art,  and  this  is  true  in  all  grades  of 
institutions  from  the  village  school  to  the  college  and  uni- 
versity, though  less  distinctly  marked  in  technical  and  pro- 
fessional centres.  In  the  lower  grade  of  schools  the  ex- 
planation of  so  large  a  percentage  of  unsuccessful  work  is 
due  partly  to  the  fact  that  so  many  instructors  are  lacking 
in  general  intellectual  fitness  and  so  many  are  compelled  on 


184  Timely  Topics 

purely  economic  grounds  to  commit  themselves  to  an  order 
of  service  for  which  either  by  nature  or  training  they  have 
no  particular  qualifications.    Their  adoption  of  teaching  as  a 
life-work  is  mainly  with  reference  to  a  livelihood,  the  de- 
mand for  teachers  being  so  insistent  that  boards  of  exam- 
iners are  apt  to  be  far  too  lenient  in  pressing  the  claims 
of  adequate  preparation  on  the  part  of  those  who  offer 
themselves  for  pedagogic  positions.     In  the  upper  grades 
of  educational  work — the  colleges  and  universities,  this  lack 
of  capable  instructors  is  far  too  pronounced,  much  of  the 
explanation  lying  in  the  fact  that  the  temptations  to  scholarly 
research  and  publication  rather  than  teaching  itself,  are  too 
appealing  to  be  resisted.     To  this  research  or  productive 
work  all  else  is  sacrificed  and  the  college  student  must  per- 
force content  himself  with  securing   from  the   instructor 
what  may  be  called  his  secondary  service,  his  primary  in- 
terests lying  elsewhere  in  the  retiracy  of  his  study  and 
library.      If   it   is   said   that   such   scholarly   investigations 
ought  to  tend  directly  toward  successful  service  in  the  class- 
room, the  facts  of  the  case  do  not  confirm  it,  many  pro- 
fessors, strange  to  say,  being  too  erudite  to  be  helpful  to  the 
average  student,  not  being  able  to  utilize  their  mental  ability 
and   possession   of   extensive   knowledge   to   the   practical 
profit  of  the  pupil,  while  it  must  be  conceded  that  many 
college   instructors  underrate  the  value   and  need  of  the 
purely  teaching  art  and  resort  to  no  special  pains  to  being 
successful  behind  the  teacher's  desk.    They  are  at  their  best 
only  when  alone  among  their  books  and  manuscripts.    Some 
few  men,  adepts  in  scholastic  research,  however  unfitted  for 
pedagogic  service,  there  must  be  in  every  seat  of  liberal 


Successful  Teaching  185 

learning.  The  great  body  of  professors,  however,  should 
be  first  and  last  efficient  teachers,  giving  this  art  primacy- 
over  all  else  in  their  college  work  and  making  it  apparent 
to  the  students  under  their  instruction  that  all  their  mental 
vigor  and  acquisitions  are  placed,  first  and  last,  at  their 
disposal,  their  main  purpose  being  so  to  practicalize  their 
scholarship  as  to  subserve  the  student's  most  imperative 
needs. 

One  reason  why  in  technical  and  professional  schools,  in 
law,  medicine  and  divinity,  the  ratio  of  successful  teachers  is 
much  larger  than  in  the  non-professional,  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  student  body  in  such  cases  is  more  mature  and 
receptive  and  more  deeply  interested  in  that  they  are  work- 
ing for  a  specific  vocational  end — the  preparation  for  a  pro- 
fession. Such  an  order  of  teaching  must  be  direct,  per- 
sonal and  practical.  The  professor  must  get  close  to  the 
ground  floor  of  the  pupils'  needs  and  interests  and  subor- 
dinate all  his  scholarship  to  vocational  ends.  It  is  clearly 
evident  and  full  of  promise  that  in  higher  education,  trustees 
and  patrons  and  scholars  themselves  are  insisting  more 
and  more,  that  the  first  function  of  a  teacher  is  that  of  teach- 
ing, pure  and  simple,  whose  place  cannot  be  taken  by  any 
other  form  of  educational  service. 

1.  Some  of  the  requisites  may  be  cited:  Most  funda- 
mental is  that  of  Knowledge.  The  teacher  must  have  the 
facts  and  truths  of  his  particular  subject  well  in  hand,  must 
be  thoroughly  grounded  in  his  special  field,  a  master  of  it 
in  all  its  parts  and  phases,  thoroughly  at  home  therein  and 
thus  making  on  the  mind  of  the  student  the  invaluable  and 
indispensable  impression  of  an  unqualified  familiarity  with 


1 86  Timely  Topics 

his  department,  as  being-  in  no  sense  an  amateur  therein. 
In  no  particular  is  a  body  of  students  more  critical  and, 
justly  so,  than  at  this  point,  where  they  may  be  said  to  take 
the  measure  of  a  man,  to  ascertain  his  fitness  to  assume  the 
role  of  an  educator  and,  alas  for  him  who  is  discovered  by 
them  to  be  simply  a  novice,  using  them  only  by  way  of  ex- 
periment. Nor  is  this  knowledge  of  one's  subject  sufficient, 
but  it  demands  a  comprehensive  acquaintance  with  all  other 
knowledge  that  is  vitally  related  to  it  and  contributive  to  its 
clear  understanding,  a  teacher  of  the  English  language  or 
literature,  for  example,  being  necessarily  conversant  with  all 
those  closely  related  languages  and  literatures  that  serve  to 
explain  the  English  itself  and  throw  light  upon  its  vocabu- 
lary, structure  and  literary  uses.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
every  successful  teacher  must  be  well  informed  outside  his 
specialty  so  as  to  interpret  it  in  the  light  of  its  educational 
environment. 

2.  A  further  requisite  is  that  of  Presentation — an  ability 
inherent  or  acquired,  for  the  communication  of  knowledge. 

a.  First  of  all,  in  terms  of  Clearness.  This  is  a  funda- 
mental qualification,  for  which  naught  else  can  be  substi- 
tuted, and  quite  distinct  from  the  mere  possession  of  neces- 
sary teaching  material.  It  is  a  matter  of  expression,  impar- 
tation  and  adaptation,  in  which  so  many  instructors,  capable 
elsewhere,  partially  or  completely  fail.  As  the  old  adage 
phrased  it — "It  is  better  to  be  dumb  than  not  to  be  under- 
stood." Intelligibility  as  well  as  intelligence  is  needed,  a 
faculty  of  utterance  so  conspicuously  clear  as  to  make  itself 
immediately  understood  by  the  attentive  mind,  a  power  of 
discrimination  and  interpretation,  enlisting  at  once  the  re- 


Successful  Teaching  187 

spect  and  cooperation  of  the  student.  The  very  word  Teach, 
which  we  get  from  Old  English,  means  to  explain,  to  set 
forth  a  truth  so  that  it  is  fully  apprehended  and  compre- 
hended, the  indispensable  condition  of  clear  expression  being 
clear  thinking,  it  holding  true,  with  few  exceptions,  that 
he  who  has  thought  a  subject  through  and  through  until  it 
stands  out  clearly  before  his  own  mind,  can  thereby  render 
it  clear  to  others. 

b.  Moreover,  this  Presentation  must  be  given  with  Im- 
pressiveness.  As  Richard  Baxter  once  stated  it — "We  mis- 
take men's  diseases  when  we  think  there  needeth  nothing  to 
cure  them  of  their  errors  but  the  evidence  of  truth."  That 
something  more,  he  would  say,  is  impressiveness,  a  deliver- 
ance of  the  truth  with  convincing  and  persuasive  cogency, 
so  that  it  penetrates  through  all  obstructions  into  the  mind 
of  the  listener.  All  true  teaching  must  have  what  Aristotle 
called  "persuasive  efficacy,"  so  that  what  is  made  clear  to 
the  understanding  shall  appeal  also  to  the  heart  and  con- 
science and  will. 

In  fine,  it  may  be  said  that  teaching  must  have  not  only 
a  didactic  quality,  but  an  oratorical  quality — a  distinctively 
impressive  and  inspiring  element.  The  thought  must  have, 
as  an  old  writer  stated  it,  "an  impulse  in  it" — must  project 
itself  upon  the  mind  and  inject  itself  into  the  mind  of  the 
student.  Instruction  must  not  only  be  imparted,  but  im- 
bedded, and  this  will  require  on  the  part  of  the  instructor  a 
corresponding  aptness  of  presentation  and  representation, 
so  that  students  as  they  listen  will  not  only  be  enlightened 
but  influenced  and  incited  to  mental  action. 

c.  Still  again  the  knowledge  must  be  presented  so  as  to 


1 88  Timely  Topics 

awaken  Interest.  Instruction  and  impression,  though  funda- 
mentally essential  must  be  reinforced  by  an  added  qualifica- 
tion,— that  of  securing  and  holding  the  attention  of  the  stu- 
ments  to  the  subject  in  hand,  until  they  are  made  to  feel 
that  it  is  to  their  personal  and  permanent  interest  to  give 
heed  to  it  and  as  far  as  possible,  to  utilize  it  in  all  their 
thinking.  The  very  etymology  of  the  word  inter-est  from 
the  Latin — that  which  concerns  us,  confirms  this  interpreta- 
tion. Nor  is  it  meant  here  that  the  instructor  must  be 
merely  entertaining,  aiming  only  at  the  mental  pleasure  of 
the  student.  He  must  be  positively  stimulating  and  inspir- 
ing, so  presenting  his  teachings  that  the  student  is  incited 
thereby,  yields  assent  thereto  and  feels  that  the  knowledge 
presented  appeals  directly  to  his  personal  intellectual  ad- 
vantage, so  that  he  cannot  afford  to  ignore  or  underrate  it. 
It  interests  him.  It  concerns  him.  Such  are  the  essentials 
of  teaching — a  thorough  mastery  of  the  subject  taught  in 
itself  and  its  relation  to  closely  kindred  subjects  and  a  power 
of  presentation  in  terms  of  clearness,  impressiveness  and 
interest.  Knowledge  and  the  ability  to  impart  it  are  so 
requisite  that  nothing  can  be  substituted  for  them,  if  any- 
thing like  the  education  of  the  student  is  secured.  To  this 
there  must  be  added  the  practical  suggestion  that  in  and 
through  all  these  factors  of  success  there  must  be  the  pres- 
ence of  the  teacher's  personality.  Schools  of  pedagogy  have 
a  place  and  in  their  way  give  their  pupils  a  kind  of  fitness 
for  their  work,  but  they  can  never  take  the  place  of  the  man 
himself  behind  the  desk.  The  greatetst  teachers  are  born 
such  as  well  as  made  such  and  despite  all  forms  of  training 
must  after  all  fall  back  on  their  own  individuality. 


The  Office  and  the  Man  189 

The  civilized  world  is  looking  as  never  before,  to  centres 
of  learning  to  clarify  the  situation  and  save  civilization  it- 
self from  disaster.  Military  prowess  has  been  tried  and  has 
failed.  All  forms  of  industrial  and  social  theories  have  been 
tested  in  vain  and  it  is  in  sheer  desperation  that  the  eyes  of 
the  nation  are  turned  to  the  Christian  church  and  the  seats 
of  learning  for  the  enlightenment  and  aid  that  they  need. 
Upon  the  teachers  of  the  day  the  solemn  responsibility  is 
laid  to  respond  to  this  appeal  and  justify  the  faith  that  is 
thus  reposed  in  them. 

THE  OFFICE  AND  THE  MAN 

"The  fact  is,"  says  Mr.  Bryce,  "that  Americans  have  ig- 
nored in  all  their  legislation,  as  in  many  of  their  adminis- 
trative arrangements,  the  differences  of  capacity  between 
man  and  man."  Mr.  Fosdick,  in  his  book  "American  Police 
Systems,"  writes  to  the  same  effect  and  with  special  refer- 
ence to  our  Municipal  Offices,  as  he  says,  "Another  contrib- 
uting factor  in  the  failure  of  our  administration  of  justice 
lies  in  the  poor  quality  of  our- magistrates  and  prosecuting 
officers,"  by  which,  as  he  contends,  the  very  ends  of  justice 
are  thwarted  and  direct  encouragement  given  to  the  lawless 
classes.  Mr.  Vanderlip,  the  American  financier,  emphasizes 
this  defect  in  our  administration,  as  applied  to  foreign  legis- 
lation, and  goes  so  far  as  to  advocate  the  formation  of  what 
he  calls,  a  Super-Senate,  which  shall  have  jurisdiction  over 
diplomatic  appointments,  and  act  as  a  check  on  the  Presi- 
dent and  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations. 


190  Timely  Topics 

The  repeated  suggestions  that  were  offered  to  President 

1 

Harding  as  to  the  composition  of  his  cabinet,  if  so  be  it 
might  be  equal  to  the  critical  demands  of  the  time,  evince 
the  unwonted  interest  taken  by  the  American  public  in 
securing  suitable  public  functionaries, — men  adapted  men- 
tally and  administratively  to  the  respective  vocations  to 
which  they  are  appointed.  One  of  the  most  vital  and  re- 
sponsible duties  incident  to  the  late  war  was  in  this  matter 
of  official  aptitude  and  is  a  duty  no  less  dominant  in  present 
post-war  conditions.  There  is  a  formal  and  fundamental 
law  of  fitness  in  all  provinces — material  and  moral — a  pre- 
established  harmony  that  must  be  observed  in  order  to 
secure  the  best  results,  important  in  all  administrative  func- 
tions, but  most  especially  in  those  now  so  manifest,  where 
the  most  vital  interests  of  the  nation  are  involved  and  where 
faulty  measures  jeopardize  the  very  life  of  the  state.  It  is 
of  these  high  offices  that  we  now  speak. 

For  the  sacred  office  of  the  ministry,  it  is  held,  that  a  can- 
didate should  be  the  recipient  of  a  special  divine  call — a 
direct  summons  from  Heaven  to  an  earthly  vocation,  the  call 
of  the  church  being  but  the  ratification  of  the  preceding  and 
higher  call.  The  Biblical  injunction  is  that  such  a  man 
should  show  himself  to  be  "approved  of  God,  a  workman 
that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,"  not  a  "novice,"  but  a  man 
suited  to  so  sublime  a  service.  In  the  secular  professions  of 
Law  and  Medicine  and  Education,  no  less  than  in  the  Min- 
istry, there  should  be  a  clear  and  convincing  call  to  save 
those  high  vocations  from  the  incompetent  incumbent — 
mere  "novices,"  pettifoggers  rather  than  jurists,  charlatans 
and  mere  practitioners  rather  than  physicians  proper,  peda- 


The  Office  mid  The  Man  191 

gogues  and  pedants  rather  than  real  educators,  experiment- 
ing at  the  expense  of  clients  and  patients  and  pupils,  instead 
of  ministering  to  their  personal  needs,  while  even  in  the 
lower  level  of  the  non-professional  activities — in  business 
and  the  industries,  this  original  law  of  fitness  between  the 
man  and  his  work  may  be  fully  applied. 

If  it  be  asked,  what  the  qualifications  are  by  which  a  man 
is  fitted  for  high  official  function  in  any  department  of  serv- 
ice— some  qualities  may  be  cited. 

1.  Special  ability  for  the  duty  assigned.  Something  more 
is  needed  than  general  mental  or  official  fitness,  mere  average 
capability  for  the  work  in  hand.  The  Biblical  injunction 
"To  every  man  his  work"  means  his  particular  work  for 
which  he  is  particularly  qualified.  That  he  is  enjoined  "to 
abide  in  the  calling  to  which  he  is  called"  implies  specific 
ability  to  fulfill  the  calling.  "Surely,"  writes  Plato,  "men 
should  not  rule  whose  aptitude  is  for  digging  ditches,  and 
men  fit  to  legislate  should  not  live  out  their  lives  as  coo- 
lers." It  was  a  high  tribute  to  the  character  and  judgment 
of  Governor  Lowden  when  offered  the  Secretaryship  of 
the  Navy,  that  he  should  have  declined  it  on  the  ground  of 
lack  of  knowledge  and  naval  inexperience  and  consequent 
unfitness  for  the  special  duties  involved.  Such  a  conception 
of  official  function  if  practically  applied,  would  reduce  the 
official  population  of  our  national  and  civic  centres  by  the 
thousands.  The  name  of  the  Misfits  is  Legion.  "Prepared 
Places  are  for  Prepared  People"  is  a  principle  applicable  to 
all  spheres  of  life. 

2.  Personal  Aptitude  is  an  essential.  This  is  what  is 
really  meant  by  the  conjunction — The  Office  and  The  Man 


192  Timely  Topics 

— the  man  in  his  entire  personality,  for  more  is  meant 
here  than  mere  mental  ability  or  even  administrative  ability. 
It  refers  to  innate  qualities  of  temperament  and  habit — that 
peculiar  product  that  we  call  individuality,  by  which  one  man 
is  differentiated  from  all  others,  and  initiates  and  applies  his 
independent  methods.  It  involves  an  accurate  and  a  com- 
prehensive acquaintance  at  first  hand  with  human  nature, 
good  judgment,  common  sense,  as  well  as  educated  sense, 
what  we  commonly  call,  tact,  a  real  instinctive  estimate  of 
man  and  conditions.  It  includes  the  possession  of  an  adapta- 
bility of  means  to  ends,  a  willingness  at  times  to  act  when 
no  special  reason  can  be  given,  and  where  the  timid  spirit 
would  fail  to  act.  Not  a  little  of  the  well-known  criticism 
of  chaplains  and  Christian  workers  in  the  late  war  lay  just 
here,  in  the  absolute  lack  of  personal  fitness  by  which  official 
fitness  was  nullified  in  its  working,  a  lack  of  that  degree  of 
good  sense  which  indicates  without  mistake  the  best  line  of 
procedure  under  given  circumstances. 

To  the  minister  of  religion,  the  jurist,  and  the  physician, 
and  the  man  of  affairs,  such  a  requisite  is  indispensable  to 
success.  The  average  man  is  all  too  quick  to  discern  in  any 
official  incumbent  the  lack  of  such  a  characteristic  and  re- 
fuses, thereby,  to  follow  his  leading.  Such  a  knowledge 
of  men  in  the  aggregate  and  of  human  nature  in  its  indi- 
vidual types  is  so  essential  that  representative  officials,  in 
whose  hands  such  appointments  rest,  are  chosen  by  govern- 
ments and  business  corporations  mainly  on  the  ground  of 
their  instinctive  capability  in  this  direction — suiting  the 
man  to  the  office  and  the  office  to  the  man.  Signal  instances 
of  success  and  failure  were  manifest  in  the  late  war,  and  in 


The  Office  and  The  Man  193 

the  present  trying  period  of  peace  and  consequent  readjust- 
ment of  the  world's  activities  similar  results  are  likely  to 
issue. 

3.  A  sense  of  Accountability.  When  Webster  was  asked 
what  impressed  him  most  in  his  personal  experience,  rela- 
tion and  duties,  he  replied — the  Sense  of  Responsibility — 
the  fact  that  he  must  be  held  strictly  accountable  for  the 
fulfillment  of  any  function  to  which  he  might  be  called. 
Much  of  his  signal  success  as  a  jurist  in  the  prosecution  of 
vast  and  vital  issues  was  due  to  this  vivid  realization  of 
moral  obligation,  of  his  duty  to  his  clients  and  to  the 
public  at  large. 

It  is  the  lack  of  this  ethical  conviction  that  characterizes 
so  large  a  percentage  of  office-holders  in  the  various  spheres 
of  official  duty — professional  and  non-professional,  sacred 
and  secular,  civic  and  commercial,  by  reason  of  which  vital 
functions  on  which  the  destinies  of  states  may  depend  are 
lightly  apprehended  and  indifferently  executed.  Mere  time- 
serving takes  the  place  of  worthy  and  unselfish  service, 
and  little  heed  is  taken  by  the  incumbent  as  to  what  the 
dire  effects  of  his  indifference  may  be.  A  man  cannot  obey 
the  biblical  injunction  and  "walk  worthily  of  the  vocation 
to  which  he  is  called,"  save  as  he  has  a  close  conception  of 
what  the  vocation  is  and  what  it  involves.  Irresponsible  of- 
ficials are  unfortunately  too  much  in  evidence.  One  of  the 
urgent  duties  of  the  hour  is  to  awaken,  if  possible,  in  such 
functionaries  this  sense  of  accountability,  if  so  be  the  merely 
personal  and  mercenary  motive  in  official  service  may  give 
place  to  a  really  disinterested  devotion  to  its  claims  and  thus 
ensure  these  beneficent  results  which  the  very  idea  of  service 
involves. 


194  Timely  Topics 

4.  A  final  qualification  is  Fidelity.  There  is  something 
more  than  a  mere  conviction  of  the  importance  of  any 
given  function.  It  is  the  purpose  faithfully  and  fully  to 
realize  it,  let  the  difficulties  be  what  they  may,  so  that  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  the  incumbent  is  at  his  post, 
wholly  committed  to  the  work  at  hand.  Such  a  temper  in 
the  discharge  of  official  duty  is  immeasurably  above  that 
of  one  who  is  accomplishing  a  mission  simply  as  a  wage- 
earner  with  his  eye  mainly  on  the  rewards  of  office  and  not 
on  the  office  itself.  So  common  is  this  selfish  spirit  that  the 
good  words,  function  and  functionary,  have  given  us  the 
unfortunate  word — perfunctory,  indicative  of  an  absolutely 
mechanical  and  half-hearted  prosecution  of  any  given  call- 
ing,— rendering  the  least  service  possible  and  regardful  of 
merely  individual  interest.  Much  of  the  friction  and  antag- 
onism between  labor  and  capital  would  disappear  if  per- 
functory service  should  give  place  to  disinterested  service. 
"It  is  required  of  stewards,"  says  the  Scripture,  "that  a 
man  be  found  faithful."  This  is  the  divine  and  human 
requisition  and  essential  to  good  results. 

Herein  may  be  said  to  be  found  a  test  of  personal  char- 
acter by  which  self-knowledge  shall  be  so  thorough  and  im- 
partial as  to  be  a  competent  judge  of  personal  aptitude  for 
any  given  function,  inducing  the  acceptance  of  it,  or  its 
rejection  as  outside  the  limits  of  one's  ability  and  experience. 
Though  arguing  a  degree  of  modesty  and  humility  quite  be- 
yond the  prevailing  measure,  it  is  an  order  of  personal 
estimate  that  would,  if  realized,  be  fraught  with  untold 
blessing  to  the  world  at  large.  This  is  the  spirit  of  Paul 
as  he  asked  "who  is  sufficient  for  these  things";  of  Moses 


The  Office  and  The  Man  195 

when  he  said,  "I  am  not  eloquent  but  slow  of  speech'' ;  of 
Jeremiah  as  he  replied  when  summoned  to  high  service,  "I 
cannot  speak,  for  I  am  a  child,"  and  it  is  often  to  these 
very  men,  conscious  to  a  fault  of  their  own  defects,  that 
the  summons  comes  as  it  came  to  Paul  and  the  prophets  to 
fill  the  place  and  do  the  work  assigned  them, — The  office 
seeks  the  man.  It  is  often  just  such  worthies,  the  unassum- 
ing possessors  of  real  merit,  for  whom  the  world  is  waiting 
and  upon  whom  it  lays  its  authoritative  hand  and  bids 
them  obey  the  call  that  comes  to  them  unsought. 

The  application  of  this  principle  reveals  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  features  and  weaknesses  of  Heredity  Govern- 
ment, especially  when  it  assumes  the  form  of  Absolute 
Monarchy,  in  that  the  recipients  of  the  throne  come  into 
power  by  the  claims  of  heredity — claimants  by  birth  to 
royal  place,  privilege  and  power,  altogether  irrespective  of 
mental  or  administrative  fitness.  One  of  the  most  dis- 
tressing chapters  in  Continental  and  even  in  English  history 
is  seen  in  the  long  list  of  emperors  and  kings  who  have 
been  conspicuously  deficient  in  governmental  functions  and 
have  prostituted  their  office  to  the  basest  ends.  It  is  this 
feature  as  much  as  any  one  factor  that  has  made  European 
History  so  much  a  record  of  unsuccessful  administration — 
when  the  most  vital  interests  of  kingdoms  and  peoples  have 
been  committed  to  mere  amateurs  in  state-craft — who  have 
played  fast  and  loose  with  their  responsibilities. 

In  a  limited  monarchy,  such  as  England,  where  abso- 
lutism is  held  in  check  by  a  degree  of  liberalism  in  govern- 
ment, this  evil  is  materially  modified,  and  the  King  is  prac- 
tically subordinate  to  the  Commons.     Herein  lies  the  grave 


196  Timely  Topics 

responsibility  of  Popular  Government,  just  because  it  is 
popular  and  not  hereditary — the  people  themselves  consti- 
tuting the  great  electorate  to  whose  hands  are  committed 
the  choice  of  their  rulers.  Officials  in  a  democratic  com- 
monwealth are  precisely  what  the  body  politic  desire  them 
and  elect  them  to  be.  In  no  respect  is  Popular  Government 
the  subject  of  criticism  more  clearly  than  here,  in  view  of 
the  appalling  number  of  incompetent  and  unprincipled  of- 
ficials who  are  chosen  directly  by  the  people  to  the  highest 
places  of  public  service.  It  is  just  here  that  Democracy 
is  even  yet  regarded  by  many  as  a  mere  experiment,  yet  to  be 
proved  as  the  best  possible  form  of  civic  rule,  the  only  and 
sufficient  answer  being  that  the  theory  or  principle  on  which 
it  is  based  is  a  sound  one,  and  that  it  is  incumbent  on  the 
great  voting  body  to  see  that  it  is  properly  and  fully  applied. 
Suiting  the  action  to  the  word  is  the  Shakespearian  for- 
mula for  dramatic  success. 

"The  right  word  in  the  right  place"  has  been  said  to  be 
the  secret  of  a  good  style.  The  right  man  in  the  right 
place  is  the  open  secret  of  successful  results  in  any  province, 
a  fact  that  has  been  fully  realized  by  those  in  whose  hands 
the  power  of  appointment  rests.  Presidents  of  Republics, 
such  as  our  own,  Presidents  of  colleges  and  of  great  cor- 
porations and  representative  religious  orders  must  be  fully 
aware  of  this  fact  and  aim  to  act  accordingly.  It  is  with 
the  failure  along  this  line  in  mind  that  Shakespeare  wrote : 

"O  that  estates,  degrees  and  dignities 
Were  not  derived  unjustly, 
How  many  that  command  would  be  commanded." 

And  we  might  add — 

How  many  that  are  commanded  would  command. 


Eras  of  Reaction  igy 

A  radical  and  startling  reversion  of  existing  relations 
would  ensue  until  something  like  a  normal  adaptability  of 
the  man  to  the  office  would  be  secured.  Upon  no  principle 
is  the  progress  of  civilization  more  dependent  than  on  this 
adjustment  of  office  and  officials,  so  that  in  government 
and  the  professions,  in  business  and  the  social  orders  the 
formal  law  of  fitness  shall  be  observed. 

Not  "arms  and  the  man,"  but  the  Office  and  the  Man 
is  the  key-note  of  the  Modern  Aeneid. 

ERAS  OF  REACTION 

What  is  known  in  Natural  Science  as  Action  and  Reac- 
tion is  the  expression  of  a  universal  and  an  unalterable  law, 
manifesting  itself  in  every  sphere — physical,  mental  and 
moral.  Hence,  the  presence  of  Normal  Reactions,  which  as 
universal  are  marked  by  the  possession  of  certain  charac- 
teristics. They  are  Gradual,  occurring  in  the  regular  on- 
ward movement  of  the  activities  and  functions  of  life,  both 
in  persons  and  peoples.  They  are  Temperate,  always  exist- 
ing in  a  modified  form  and  measure  and  thus  obedient  to 
natural  laws.  They  are  Beneficent  in  their  working,  and 
thus  welcomed  as  a  sign  and  surety  of  common  benefit. 

i.  In  the  Natural  World,  they  are  expressed  in  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  tides,  and  in  the  orderly  procession  of  the 
seasons  on  whose  regular  recurrence  men  may  depend  with 
absolute  confidence. 

2.  In  Personal  Experience,  the  alternation  of  joy  and 
sorrow,  of  success  and  failure,  of  satisfaction  and  disap- 
pointment, is  as  common  a  succession  as  the  rise  and  fall 


198  Timely  Topics 

of  the  tides  and  constitutes  what  we  call  human  experience, 
practically  the  same  the  world  over. 

3.  In  Government,  it  is  seen  in  the  undemonstrative  and 
orderly  passage  of  absolute  monarchy  into  limited  monarchy 
and  thereby  into  a  representative  democracy,  as  seen  in 
English  and  to  some  extent  in  Continental  History,  as  in 
France.  In  American  History  the  election  of  Senators  by 
the  people  at  large,  instead  of  their  election  by  the  states, 
has  been  a  quiet  and  radical  reform,  as,  indeed  the  great 
suffrage  movements  of  contemporary  history  may  be  said  to 
have  been  accomplished  through  the  orderly  processes  of 
popular  expressions. 

In  the  Commercial  World  this  law  of  Reaction  in  its 
healthful  form  has  been  manifested  in  the  periodical  modifi- 
cations of  the  Tariff,  in  the  noiseless  and  unexcited  passages 
from  a  dull  to  an  active  market,  in  the  recent  modification  of 
American  finance,  as  seen  in  the  Federal  Reserve  System, 
and  in  the  peaceable  transfer  of  thousands  of  our  soldiers 
from  the  activities  of  the  camp  to  those  of  the  counting- 
room. 

In  the  Literary  World,  every  great  nation  evinces  these 
movements  from  the  creative  to  the  critical,  from  the  real- 
istic to  the  romantic,  so  signally  illustrated  in  English  Let- 
ters. What  is  called  the  Golden  Age  as  distinct  from  in- 
ferior epochs  is  but  one  example  of  this  rational  reaction, 
from  one  type  of  condition  to  another.  It  is  but  one  of  the 
evidences  of  the  law  of  change  to  which  everything  human 
is  subject. 

In  the  Religious  World,  this  law  is  manifested  in  the 
deliberate  passage  from  doubt  to  certitude,   from  intense 


Eras  of  Reaction  199 

emotive  states  to  regulated  feeling,  in  a  word  from  an  ill- 
defined  faith  to  a  rational  system  of  belief  and  method  of 
life. 

These  expressions  of  Reaction  are  characteristically  nor- 
mal, fall  into  line  with  all  other  normal  processes  of  life 
and  are  directly  contributive  to  personal  well-being  and  the 
development  of  natural  life. 

There  is,  however,  the  province  of  Abnormal  Reaction, 
where  the  natural  principle  of  Action  and  Reaction  as  equal 
is  subverted  and  where  we  are  clearly  within  the  area  of 
Abnormal  Psychology. 

Here  the  Reactions  are  sudden  and,  at  times,  Violent,  dis- 
ruptive and  disorganizing,  so  unexpected  as  to  find  no  pro- 
vision at  hand  for  their  correction  and  control.  They  are, 
moreover,  Excessive  in  their  measure,  passing  all  ordinary 
and  reasonable  bounds  over  into  the  most  extreme  forms 
possible.  They  are,  distinctly,  Harmful,  serving  no  desirable 
end,  running  athwart  well-established  principles  and  policies 
and  demanding  immediate  suppression. 

In  the  Natural  World,  this  type  of  Reaction  is  seen  in 
earthquake  and  tempest,  drought  and  flood,  famine  and  pes- 
tilence, as  in  China,  whereby  whole  peoples  are  sacrificed 
and  creation  tends  to  revert  to  chaos. 

In  Personal  Experience,  ecstacy  gives  place  to  despair, 
optimism  to  pessimism,  and  the  tragi-comic  is  the  dominant 
type. 

In  Government,  the  most  pronounced  absolutism  passes 
over  without  notification  into  the  most  decided  democracy, 
one  form  of  civic  rule  gives  way  to  another  only  by  the 
radical  process  of  civil  revolution  and  a  Reign  of  Terror 


200  Timely  Topics 

is  the  inevitable  result.  In  Cuba  and  the  Latin-American 
States,  as  among  the  Central  Powers,  this  abnormal  civic 
regime  is  in  its  worst  expression.  "Cubans  are  not  gaining 
faith"  writes  a  recent  author  "in  the  possibility  of  changing 
from  one  administration  to  another  by  the  constitutional 
method  of  election  and  are  feeling  more  confirmed  in  the  ne- 
cessity of  resorting  to  Revolution." 

Professor  Hayes  in  his  instructive  volumes  "The  Political 
and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe,"  gives  a  significant 
chapter  entitled  "The  Era  of  Metternich,"  "Revolution  or 
Reaction,"  in  the  development  of  which  he  submits  an  in- 
teresting and  startling  survey  of  the  periodical  occurrence  of 
Reaction  or  Revolution  in  the  attempted  reconstruction  of 
Europe,  after  the  devastating  wars  of  the  Napoleonic  Era, 
emphasizing  the  Bourbon  Revolution  in  France,  the  Tory 
Reaction  in  Great  Britain,  the  Trial  and  Abandonment  of 
Liberalism  in  Russia,  the  Maintenance  of  Autocracy  in  Cen- 
tral Europe,  and  the  ultimate  reversal  of  the  despotic  poli- 
cies of  Metternich  in  favor  of  a  modified  civic  freedom.  So 
on  through  the  subsequent  history  in  the  discusion  of  such 
vital  questions  as  Democratic  Reform  and  Revolution,  the 
Growth  of  Nationalism,  the  New  Imperialism,  down  to  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Battle  of  the  Nations  in  1914,  there 
is  evident  this  swinging  of  the  world's  pendulum  back  and 
forth  between  the  two  extremes  of  Reaction  and  Radicalism, 
and  a  desperate  attempt  to  reach  in  some  way  a  position  of 
stable  equilibrium. 

In  the  Commercial  World,  an  era  of  general  prosperity 
is  followed  without  due  notification  by  one  of  distress. 
Stable  conditions  in  the  markets  and  the  industries  give 


Eras  of  Reaction  201 

place  to  panic  and  the  wisest  heads  are  at  their  wits'  ends 
to  comprehend  and  compass  the  movement. 

In  the  Literary  World, — a  Golden  Age  is  followed  by 
one  of  mediocrity  and  barrenness. 

In  the  Religious  World — Orthodoxy  gives  place  to  Her- 
esy, Enthusiasm  to  Apathy,  and,  for  the  time  being,  all 
creeds  and  confessions  seem  to  have  passed  into  abeyance, 
and,  as  in  France  in  the  days  of  Voltaire,  there  is  a  wide- 
spread renunciation  of  all  religious  beliefs. 

These  are  the  Abnormal,  if  not  Subnormal  Reactions  of 
history — concretely  illustrated  in  every  age  and  people  and 
demanding  the  careful  study  of  every  lover  of  mankind. 
As  Abnormal  they  mark  what  Gibbon  would  call,  the  Decline 
and  Fall  of  Civilization,  illustrate  the  dominance,  for  the 
time  being,  of  all  the  extreme  elements  of  human  nature, 
and,  unless  controlled,  will  check  the  moral  movement  of 
civilization  and  set  it  back  to  primitive  conditions. 

Action  and  Reaction  must  be  equalized.  Reactionary  and 
Radical  alike  must  make  a  mutual  surrender  and  meet  on 
the  middle  and  safer  ground  of  reason  and  law.  These 
Reactions,  as  might  naturally  be  supposed,  are  especially 
prominent  in  the  great  crises  of  history,  when  the  very 
foundations  of  the  civic  and  social  order  are  disturbed  and 
new  conditions  must  be  met  by  new  methods.  In  fact, 
no  great  historic  movement  has  taken  place  that  has  not 
begotten  some  such  reversion,  often  so  intent  and  acute  as 
to  be  of  the  nature  of  a  catastrophe  and  threatening  the  very 
existence  of  the  state.  It  is  because  they  are  Abnormal 
that  they  are  dangerous  and  difficult  to  control.  'Twas 
so  in  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  capture 


202  Timely  Topics 

of  Constantinople  in  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  establish- 
ment of  Modern  Europe,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the 
successive  revolutions  that  have  arisen  down  to  the  open- 
ing of  the  recent  war,  the  occasion  of  which  is  largely  found 
in  the  vain  attempt  to  impose  upon  the  modern  world  the 
political  principles  and  methods  of  the  Dark  Ages,  substitut- 
ing might  for  right,  and  aiming  to  turn  back  once  and  for 
all  the  democratic  trend  of  the  time. 

Some  of  the  special  manifestations  of  this  modern  Era  of 
Reaction  may  be  noticed. 

i.  The  emphatic  Increase  of  Crime  in  all  the  Allied  States 
and  Central  Powers,  the  extreme  expression  of  it  in  Amer- 
ica, forming  the  subject  matter  of  a  treatise  by  Commis- 
sioner Fosdick.  There  is  the  surging  of  what  the  statis- 
ticians call  the  Crime  Wave,  breaking  on  every  shore  and 
threatening  to  submerge  all  modern  institutions.  Students 
of  government  and  social  order  and  economics,  students 
of  military  science  and  experts  in  psychology  are  being 
engaged  in  examining  the  possible  causes  of  this  criminal 
trend,  induced  in  part  by  physical  causes — the  stress  of  camp 
life  and  the  shock  of  battle  and,  in  part,  by  a  distinct  mental 
and  moral  deterioration — a  reaction  of  the  whole  man  against 
the  established  order  and  an  irresistible  inclination  to  oppose 
and  undermine  it.  So  dominant  has  this  destructive  ten- 
dency become,  that  the  cautious  methods  of  the  criminal 
class  hitherto  obtaining  have  given  place  to  daring  ad- 
venture in  the  very  face  of  law,  and  society  finds  itself 
obliged  to  organize,  as  never  before,  as  a  great  protective 
association  for  self-defense. 

2.  A  further  manifestation  takes  the  form  of  Labor  Un- 


Eras  of  Reaction  203 

rest — an  ever-increasing  degree  of  friction  between  capital 
and  labor, — and  an  imperative  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
employee  for  a  fuller  recognition  of  his  claims.  Instead  of 
an  army  of  soldiers  in  their  country's  service  and  willingly 
obedient  to  the  behests  of  their  leader,  there  is  seen  an  almost 
equally  large  army  of  the  unemployed, — partly  by  reason 
of  a  failure  to  find  employment,  but  mainly  by  reason  of  a 
determined  unwillingness  to  labor  at  all  or  only  in  lieu  of 
a  compensation  altogether  exorbitant.  How  to  grapple  with 
this  menacing  problem  is  one  of  the  serious  questions  of  the 
hour,  and  measures  are  in  evidence  in  every  nation  to  mini- 
mize this  consuming  friction  and  coordinate,  if  possible,  all 
classes  and  conditions.  A  question  partly  civic  and  partly 
economic  and  involving  so  many  complex  and  conflicting 
issues,  it  may  well  tax  the  wisdom  of  the  wisest. 

3.  A  spirit  of  Agitation  is  one  of  the  issues  of  this  Re- 
action— the  sheer  love  of  disturbance — finding  its  chosen 
vocation  in  disarranging  all  that  is  settled  and  clamoring 
with  persistent  boldness  for  a  new  and  radically  different 
order. 

Disturbers  of  the  public  peace  are  in  evidence  as  never 
before — self-constituted  revolutionists,  avowedly  without 
any  constructive  programme  and  bent  on  agitation  for  the 
sake  of  agitation,  already  dinning  in  our  ears  the  dire 
prophecy  of  the  "Next  War"  in  comparison  with  which,  it 
is  said,  all  past  horrors  will  be  insignificant — criminals  at 
large  taking  advantage  of  present  conditions  to  reinaugurate 
a  Reign  of  Terror. 

In  fine,  we  are  living  in  an  era  when  it  would  seem  the 
Loyalty  of  War  has  largely  given  place  to  the  Disloyalty 


204  Timely  Toffies 

of  Peace,  and  thousands  of  men  who  were  willing  to  face 
suffering  and  death  for  the  nation's  honor,  now  that  they 
are  mustered  out  of  military  service,  affect  a  complete  re- 
version of  function  and  must  be  counted  as  practically  dis- 
loyal,— the  reaction  from  the  spectacular  and  exciting  life 
of  the  soldier  to  the  commonplace  and  comparative  mo- 
notony of  the  private  citizen  expressing  itself  in  chronic 
dissatisfaction  and  not  infrequently  in  criminal  protest  and 
revolt. 

Such,  as  we  conceive  it,  is  an  Era  of  Reaction,  in  its 
Normal  and  Abnormal  expression,  as  seen  in  the  Natural 
World,  in  Personal  Experience,  in  Government  and  the 
Commercial  World,  in  the  Literary  and  Religious  World 
and  its  characteristics  in  its  Abnormal  Form  and  Special 
Manifestations. 

Hence,  the  duty  of  the  hour  is  manifest — the  restoration 
of  normal  conditions — of  the  civic,  commercial  and  re- 
ligious and  social  equilibrium,  by  which  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  modern  world  may  proceed  by  natural  law  and 
Action  and  Reaction  once  again  be  equalized.  Men  and 
nations  must  come  to  themselves,  return  to  sanity,  their 
mental  and  moral  balance  secured.  There  is  a  sense  in 
which  the  world  may  be  said  to  be  in  a  state  of  delirium, 
as  the  word  etymologically  signifies — aout  of  the  furrow" 
— and  must  by  some  process  or  another  be  brought  back 
into  the  furrow  and  thus  able  to  maintain  a  straight  line 
of  advance  as  the  years  go  on.  Putting  hands  to  the  plough, 
there  is  to  be  no  looking  back,  lest  the  plough  shall  deviate 
from  its  course  and  the  furrow  be  missed. 

So  vital  is  this  issue,  that  the  destiny  of  nations  is  depend- 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  205 

ent  thereon.  So  imminent  is  the  existing  status  that  modern 
civilization  itself  is  at  stake  and  all  personal  and  private 
interests  must  be  sacrificed  to  the  common  weal  and  na- 
tionalism in  all  states  recognize  the  claims  of  internation- 
alism. Instead  of  a  Covenant  of  Europe,  there  must  be  a 
Covenant  of  all  Peoples,  instead  of  the  Balance  of  Power, 
the  Balance  of  Obligation  and  Privilege,  and  "The  Allies" 
be  accepted  as  the  fitting  title  of  the  "Parliament  of  Man, 
the  Federation  of  the  World" — a  Holy  Alliance  in  truth. 


A  NEEDED  REVIVAL  OF  CONSCIENCE 

Conscience  is  a  natural  and  universal  sense — a  moral  and 
religious  instinct,  what  Matthew  Arnold  fittingly  calls  "A 
Sense  in  us  for  Conduct," — what  Wordsworth  calls  "A 
Spark  of  Celestial  Fire,"  "Stern  Daughter  of  the  Voice 
of  God."  Hence,  it  deals  with  character,  with  motives, 
purposes,  obligations,  in  a  word,  with  good  and  evil,  detect- 
ing and  asserting  the  fundamental  difference  between  them. 
Functioning  as  a  monitor  before  action,  it  assumes  the  of- 
fice of  a  judge  after  action,  accusing  or  excusing,  a  mental 
faculty,  on  the  one  hand,  dealing  with  the  knowledge  of  right 
and  wrong  and  an  emotive  exercise,  on  the  other,  experienc- 
ing satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction. 

If  we  inquire  as  to  the  types  or  forms  of  its  expression, 
we  find  them  to  be  as  varied  as  the  functions  of  human 
activity,  entering  as  a  vital  principle  into  every  possible 
phase  of  human  experience. 

There  is  the  Professional  Conscience,  as  seen,  for  exam- 
ple, in  what  are  known  as  Medical  Ethics  and  Legal  Ethics. 


206  Timely  Topics 

The  Journalistic  Conscience,  as  exhibited  in  the  modern 
newspaper  press. 

The  Athletic  Conscience,  as  expressed  in  the  field  of 
sport. 

The  Academic  Conscience,  as  manifested  in  the  colleges 
of  the  country. 

The  Commercial  and  Industrial  Conscience,  as  seen  in 
the  marts  of  trade  and  expressed  in  the  world  of  labor  in 
the  relation  of  "Ethics  and  Economics." 

The  Civic  Conscience, — the  application  of  moral  law  to 
government, — municipal,  state,  national  and  international, 
discussed  by  Aristotle  in  his  "Ethics  and  Politik." 

The  Social  Conscience,  operating  in  the  domain  of  popu- 
lar habit  and  custom. 

In  fine,  no  province  in  human  thought  and  life  is  with- 
out the  presence,  in  some  degree,  of  this  interior  principle. 

The  need  of  its  revival  is  one  of  the  dominant  disclosures 
of  the  time — a  need  all  too  apparent  in  each  of  its  possible 
spheres  of  expression.  Some  of  these  types  may  be  exam- 
ined. 

i.  As  to  what  may  be  called  Professional  Ethics,  a  signal 
illustration  may  be  cited  as  applicable  to  the  hour.  At  a 
recent  meeting  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  a  Report 
was  presented  by  a  Committee  entitled,  significantly — "The 
Committee  on  Professional  Ethics  and  Grievances,"  as  to 
the  "Standards  of  The  American  Bar."  The  Report  was 
based  on  a  Questionnaire  sent  to  the  judges  of  the  various 
states.  Some  of  the  judges,  it  is  said,  were  not  aware  that 
any  such  Canons  of  Ethics  applicable  to  the  Law  had  been 
adopted  in  their  states,  while  in  several  states  no  canons 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  207 

were  issued.  As  a  special  example,  it  is  stated  that  the 
Presiding  Justice  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  New  York 
Supreme  Court,  reported  thirty-eight  complaints,  "the  con- 
version of  a  client's  money  seeming  to  be  the  besetting  sin." 
Other  complaints  included  such  ethical  "Grievances"  as 
false  affidavits,  deceiving  clients,  forcing  a  settlement,  con- 
cealment of  disbarment  on  the  part  of  applicants  for  ad- 
mission to  the  bar,  inducing  clients  to  invest  in  a  hazardous 
enterprise,  personal  solicitation  of  legal  business,  and  so  on. 
That  these  misdemeanors,  and  such  as  these  are  far  too  com- 
mon in  the  Legal  Profession,  cannot  be  questioned.  The 
province  of  Medical  Ethics  is  by  no  means  free  from  cor- 
responding violators  of  anything  like  an  ethical  code  re- 
quiring strict  conformity. 

It  is  in  treating  of  Professional  Codes  that  Jeffs  writes 
"Concerning  Conscience,"  while  Professor  Drake  in  his  in- 
structive book  "Problems  of  Conduct"  writes  to  the  same 
effect.  "There  is  need  of  acknowledged  Professional  Codes, 
drawn  up  by  representative  members  and  enforced  by  public 
opinion  within  the  professions."  Hendrick  in  his  "New 
Medical  Ethics"  contends  for  a  similar  standard.  In  medi- 
cine even  more  than  in  the  law  this  supremacy  of  conscience 
is  needed  to  safeguard  the  best  interests  of  the  patient  and 
also  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  profession  itself. 

2.  In  the  field  of  Modern  Newspaper  Journalism,  and 
particularly  in  America,  flagrant  violations  of  anything  like 
an  ethical  standard  are  manifest,  so  that  there  are  times 
not  infrequent  when  the  reader  is  at  a  loss  what  to  accept 
as  valid  and  reliable  and  what  to  reject.  The  actual  manu- 
facture of  news  and  their  bald  manipulation  are  in  evidence, 


208  Timely  Topics 

the  old  policy  being  illustrated,  where  the  writers  were  ac- 
cused of  going  to  history  for  their  imagery  and  to  their 
imagination  for  their  facts.  Unqualified  assertions  are 
made  quite  apart  from  any  real  historic  basis,  and  the  allega- 
tion is  squarely  made  that  the  "interests"  so-called,  are 
often  the  proprietors  of  the  Press,  whose  bidding  must  be 
obeyed,  the  representatives  of  the  Press  spending  much  of 
their  time  in  the  lobby  of  our  national  and  state  capitols 
awaiting  a  ''consideration. "  One  of  the  most  reprehensible 
forms  of  this  journalistic  method  is  seen  in  the  reckless 
manner  in  which  it  often  deals  with  personal  honor  and 
repute,  exposing  with  "pitiless  publicity"  the  innermost  life 
of  the  home,  making  a  specialty  of  scandal  and  dealing 
fast  and  loose  with  private  character.  What  is  needed  is 
accredited  facts  and  the  seamy  side  of  life  given  a  less  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  columns. 

Head-line  Journalism  is  one  of  the  signal  developments 
of  the  time.  As  a  protest  against  this  type  of  journalism, 
attempts  have  been  made  to  issue  a  daily  or  weekly  periodical 
based  on  fact  and  the  purpose  to  emphasize  the  better  and 
not  the  baser  phases  of  daily  life.  The  most  recent  attempt 
in  this  direction  appeared  in  the  American  Daily  Standard 
of  Chicago,  "issued  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  the  point 
of  view  of  a  Christian  daily  newspaper,  keeping  off  the 
front  page  any  news  of  crime."  It  was  established,  as  it 
says,  "to  signalize  the  end  of  the  exploitation,  the  sensation- 
alizing, the  stringing  out  of  murder,  divorce  and  scandal." 
The  "Standard"  was  founded,  "because  there  was  a  real 
sentiment  against  the  excessive  display  of  crime  news  and 
because  growing  numbers  of  the  people  want  constructive 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  209 

and  accurate  journalism."  That  the  experiment  survived 
but  a  few  months,  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  lack  of  finan- 
cial support  as  to  the  fact  that  "growing  numbers  of  the 
people"  want  the  facts  somewhat  embellished  and  magnified. 
Journalism,  after  all,  will  be  what  the  people  wish  it  to  be,  a 
true  transcript  of  life  or  an  exaggerated  one. 

In  the  sphere  of  Literary  Criticism  as  given  in  the  Daily 
Press,  we  note  a  flagrant  violation  of  conscience,  candid  and 
unprejudiced  examination  often  giving  place  to  partial 
review.  Books  and  authors  are  summarily  dismissed  after 
the  most  cursory  reading,  a  hasty  glance  at  the  Table  of 
Contents  being  quite  sufficient  to  justify  a  final  opinion  as 
to  merit  and  demerit,  though  the  author  has  a  right  to  ex- 
pect the  emphasis  of  excellence  and  the  sympathetic  treat- 
ment of  defect.  The  critics  instead  of  being  competent  and 
candid  judges  are  often  simply  "literary  freaks,"  in  no  sense 
entitled  to  the  name  of  critics  in  the  sense  in  which  Matthew 
Arnold  and  Lowell  understood  and  illustrated  that  appel- 
lation. In  this  respect  a  manifest  gain  would  be  secured 
both  for  literature  and  daily  journalism  if  the  estimate  of 
books  and  authors  were  left  to  those  Weekly  and  Monthly 
Issues,  in  which  criticism  is  given  a  place  of  prominence. 

4.  In  the  sphere  of  Athletics,  this  moral  faculty  has  its 
place  and  claims,  though  often  disregarded  in  favor  of 
questionable  methods.  "We  are  out  to  win"  has  been  too 
often  the  slogan  of  the  field, — to  win  by  fair  means  or  foul. 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  in  pagan  times  we  find  the  high 
ideal  in  this  particular  province.  "Preceding  the  Olympic 
Games  the  contestants  were  assembled  before  the  statue  of 
Zeus,   swearing   that   they   were   worthy   to   compete   and 


210  Timely  Topics 

would  act  faithfully  and  loyally."  Thirty  days  before  the 
contest  select  judges  examined  the  character  and  antecedents 
of  the  contestants,  if  so  be  no  unworthy  aspirant  might 
gain  admittance  to  the  field,  an  order  of  procedure  that 
would  have  prevented  such  athletic  scandals  as  have  at 
times  disgraced  and  jeopardized  some  of  our  most  attractive 
American  sports.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  principle 
of  honor — "a  fair  field  and  no  favor"  may  be  said  to  be 
fundamental  in  the  province  of  sport,  where  the  contestants 
are  supposed  to  meet  on  a  "gentlemen's  agreement"  and 
conduct  the  contest  in  strictest  conformitv  to  the  code. 

5.  There  is  another  type  of  conscience  which  may  be 
called  the  Academic,  unique  in  its  province  and  method  of 
expression.  It  is  the  type  prevailing  in  all  institutions  of 
learning — liberal  or  technical,  under  state  or  private  con- 
trol. It  is  specifically  the  code  of  the  campus,  and  quite  un- 
recognized as  applicable  outside  the  collegiate  area.  It  has 
its  own  standards,  rewards  and  penalties  and  inside  its  par- 
ticular field  is  as  exacting  as  any  non-collegiate  code  of  con- 
duct, as  exacting  indeed  as  a  military  code.  It  expresses  it- 
self in  all  the  varied  phases  of  university  life — in  the  class- 
room and  on  the  campus,  in  all  social  functions,  in  the  rela- 
tion of  class  to  class  and  of  these  to  the  teaching  body, 
manifested  even  in  the  sphere  of  religious  observance  and, 
pervading  as  an  atmosphere  the  entire  undergraduate  life. 
Partly  the  product  of  youth  as  such  in  its  desire  for  freedom 
and  partly  the  expression  of  academic  tradition,  it  stands 
out  as  a  characteristic  feature  of  modern  university  life, 
to  be  accepted  as  such  and  modified  as  collegiate  conditions 
themselves  are  changed. 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  211 

6.  The  Commercial  Conscience  is  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinctive types — more  pronounced  and  active  in  this  twentieth 
century  than  in  any  antecedent  era.  "Possibly  there  never 
was  a  time"  writes  an  acute  observer  "when  dishonest 
speculators  were  so  busy  and  adroit  in  finding  ways  to 
cheapen  everything  by  deceit. 

"Business  exploitation,"  writes  Croly,  "is  now  allied  with 
political  corruption."  It  is  here  that  we  have  the  Ethics 
of  the  Exchange  and  the  Marts  of  Trade — by  the  influence 
of  which  we  have  Profiteering  in  the  place  of  honest  Profit- 
ing, Out-doing,  Un-doing,  Over-doing,  a  victimized  people. 
It  would  seem  to  be  the  Golden  Age  of  Adulteration  of 
Goods  and  Drugs  and  even  Foods,  a  controlling  or  corner- 
ing of  the  market  by  which  the  consumer  is  forced  to  pur- 
chase at  exorbitant  rates  and  swell  the  sum-total  of  excess 
profits  to  the  commercial  manipulator.  Corporations,  it  is 
said,  have  no  soul,  and  we.  may  add  no  consciences ;  while 
responsibility  is  so  diffused  as  to  make  detection  and  pun- 
ishment well  nigh  impossible.  The  atrocious  crime  of  child- 
labor  is  justified  on  the  ground  of  its  profitableness. 

Business  is  said  to  be  business,  with  its  own  code  and  con- 
ditions— its  own  means  and  ends,  its  own  estimate  of  profit 
and  loss.  What  is  called  commercial  cleverness  or  sagacity, 
takes  the  form  of  shrewdness  and  double-dealing,  of  studied 
adroitness  by  which  the  buyer  is  for  the  time  at  the  mercy 
of  the  seller.  Most  of  the  high  cost  of  living  has  been 
due  to  this  throttling  of  the  Moral  Sense  in  the  every-day 
transactions  of  trade — this  unholy  alliance  of  "Mechanism 
and  Morals." 

In  the  Industrial  World  there  may  be  seen  one  of  the 


212  Timely  Topics 

prominent  forms  of  this  Commercial  Creed — the  sphere 
of  "Ethics  and  Economics."  Hence  the  Dual  Entente  of 
Capital  and  Labor,  while  presumably  acting  in  unison  for 
common  benefit,  is  found,  too  often,  to  be  at  cross  purposes, 
aiming  at  totally  diverse  and  independent  ends.  "Nearly 
all  the  wars  fought  in  Europe  from  the  fifteenth  century, 
have  been  wars  for  the  Open  Market,"  writes  Devoe, — 
specific  economic  wars.  The  demand  for  mutual  concession 
which  is  made  by  a  patient  public  is  ignored.  What  Presi- 
dent Harding  has  called  "The  Gospel  of  Understanding" 
of  fair  and  square  dealing  is  unheeded  and  "The  Impassable 
Gulf"  between  classes  is  widened.  What  is  needed  is  what 
Shakespeare  calls  "even-handed  justice" — a  conscientious 
application  of  the  Golden  Rule. 

7.  There  is  a  Civic  Conscience,  illustrated  by  Aristotle 
in  his  "Ethic  and  Politik,"  the  Canons  of  the  Moral  Law, 
applied  to  municipal,  state,  national  and  international  inter- 
ests, and  in  the  sphere  of  the  industries.  Even  in  pagan 
days  contracts  were  made  under  the  patronage  of  The  God 
of  Good  Faith. 

It  is  against  this  stultification  of  conscience  in  Politics, 
that  Professor  Croly  protests  in  his  "Progressive  Democ- 
racy," and  it  is  with  this  in  mind  that  Vice-President  Cool- 
idge  wrote :  "We  must  smite  the  rock  of  the  Public  Con- 
science if  the  waters  of  Patriotism  are  to  pour  forth."  A 
comparison  of  the  apparently  disinterested  and  almost  de- 
votional pledges  of  a  Party  Platform  with  a  Post-Election 
fulfillment  of  them  will  afford  one  of  the  best  illustrations 
in  American  Civic  Life  of  this  remanding  of  conscience  to 
the  rear  when  the  conditions  demand  it.     In  the  manipula- 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  213 

tion  of  the  ballot,  in  the  transactions  of  the  lobby  chamber, 
legislation  may  often  be  seen  offered  for  sale  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Private  and  Corporate  "Interests"  must  be  con- 
sulted and  satisfied  ere  the  common  good  is  regarded,  the 
sphere  of  Municipal  Government  in  this  country  being 
rightly  regarded  by  Bryce  as  a  signal  disgrace  to  our  insti- 
tutions,— the  public  school  system  itself  being  a  victim  of  the 
Ward  Politician.  In  most  of  our  municipal  administrations 
it  may  be  said  that  conscience  and  common  councilmen  are 
not  on  speaking  terms. 

"Let  us  hope,"  writes  Secretary  Hay  in  his  relation  to  in- 
ternational diplomacy,  "we  may  never  be  big  enough  to 
outgrow  our  conscience,"  and  he  adds,  with  a  touch  of  sar- 
casm, "there  might  be  a  worse  reputation  for  a  country  to 
acquire  than  that  of  always  speaking  the  truth  and  always 
expecting  it  from  others."  This  was  his  high  policy  as  to 
the  "Open  Door,"  not  only  economically,  but  ethically,  and 
he  sounds  a  note  of  warning  "that  American  Diplomacy, 
national  and  international,  is  perpetually  in  danger  of  laps- 
ing from  this  moral  level."  Such  lapsing  has  been  far  too 
frequent,  a  real  Lapsus  Conscientiae.  "There  are  no  ethical 
friendships"  we  are  told,  "between  states  in  our  day." 
Writers  are  calling  our  attention  to  the  Social  Conscience — 
communal  as  distinct  from  personal,  our  very  word — 
Morals — as  derived  from  the  Latin,  being  synonymous  with 
Customs  or  Community  Habit.  This  is  what  is  called  Gen- 
eral Morale,  the  public  code  of  ethics,  the  average  type  of 
conduct,  as  variable  as  public  opinion,  suiting  itself  to  the 
rapidly  shifting  conditions  of  modern  life.  This  is  Com- 
munity Ethics,  notable  for  its  elasticity  and  rather  boastful 


214  Timely  Topics 

of  the  fact  that  it  is  an  order  of  popular  habit  always  down 
to  date.    It  is  morality  a  la  mode. 

It  is  this  Social  Laxity  and,  indeed,  Social  Tyranny,  that 
Tennyson  had  in  mind  as  he  wrote  in  "Locksley  Hall": 

"Cursed  be  the  social  wants  that  sin  against  the  strength  of  youth. 
Cursed  be  the  social  lies  that  warp  us   from  the  living  truth." 

It  is  the  modern  type  of  life  that  Mr.  Henderson,  M.P., 
Secretary  of  the  Labor  Party  in  England,  has  in  mind,  as 
he  says :  "This  is  the  day  of  the  social  conscience.  There 
is  a  corporate  sense  of  sin.  There  is  need  of  corporate  re- 
pentance. There  is  a  probability  of  corporate  salvation." 
The  modern  novel  and  play  based  so  largely  on  the  pro- 
nounced prevalence  and  the  attractiveness  .of  domestic  dis- 
cord and  scandal  are  a  manifest  reflection  and  indicator  of 
social  standards. 

Hence  the  open  parade  of  wealth  in  the  face  of  the 
struggling  masses,  the  abrogation  of  all  restraint  in  dress 
and  demeanor,  the  insistence  on  absolute  freedom  in  the 
domain  of  conduct,  in  a  word,  the  recognition  of  prevail- 
ining  social  standards  as  the  only  warrantable  code  of  ethics. 
Such  books  as  "Christianity  and  the  Social  Conscience," 
and  "The  Social  Basis  of  Religion"  aim  to  span  the  im- 
passable gulf  that  lies  between  such  a  conception  of  conduct 
and  that  which  so  largely  obtains  in  the  modern  social  world, 
the  negation  of  conscience  in  the  social  order  being  a  didactic 
mark  of  the  Ultra-Socialistic  Theory  of  the  day.  "Social 
Justice"  it  is  well  said  "depends  on  the  Social  Conscience." 

From  such  a  survey,  what  is  first  of  all  clear,  is — A 
Common  Characteristic  of  Ethical  Laxity — a  spirit  of  moral 


A  Needed  Revival  of  Conscience  215 

compromise  and  accommodation  to  suit  the  demands  of  the 
hour,  in  a  word,  Unconscientiousness. 

As  the  satirist  Butler  writes  in  "Hudibras" : 

"Why  should  not  conscience  have  vacation 
As  well  as  other  courts  of  the  nation !" 

What  are  theologically  called  Conscientious  Scruples,  it  is 
urged,  must  be  confined  to  convents  and  churches  and  not 
be  observed  in  the  everyday  life  of  the  outside  world,  where 
men  are  supposed  to  act  freely  and  only  in  obedience  to  their 
interests  and  instincts.  Hence  the  need  of  a  moral  awaken- 
ing— the  assertion  of  the  authority  and  supremacy  of  Con- 
science, demanding  the  recognition  of  its  claims  and  brook- 
ing no  evasion — the  unqualified  subjection  to  its  dictates 
as  ultimate  and  beyond  repeal,  a  divine  oracle,  a  supreme 
court  of  final  jurisdiction.  The  voice  of  God  in  man — 
soul — to  be  heeded  in  all  professional  and  private  life,  in  all 
the  forms  of  human  activity,  its  enlightenment  consti- 
tuting a  valid  obligation,  if  so  be,  it  may  be  a  safe  guide  to 
conduct  in  every  phase  of  life. 

That  there  are  some  signs  of  such  an  awakening,  how- 
ever dim  and  infrequent,  is  one  of  the  auspicious  features 
of  the  day.  Emphatic  protests  against  unethical  procedure 
are  more  often  heard  than  hitherto.  Public  opinion  is  show- 
ing some  indication  of  betterment  and  insisting  on  the  recog- 
nition of  its  demands  in  all  private  and  public  functions, 
a  real  revival  of  the  moral  sense,  especially  needed  in  free 
governments,  where  the  people  rule  and  where  as  such  the 
voice  of  the  people  is  proved  to  be  the  voice  of  God. 

It  was  Ben  Jonson,  with  his  mind  on  the  church 
in  its  need  of  an  awakening  of  conscience  who  wrote :  "That 


216  Timely  Topics 

the  pulpit  should  ring  and  the  aisles  of  the  churches  should 
ring  with  that  round  word."  Not  only  the  aisles  of  the 
churches,  we  may  add,  but  also  the  halls  of  legislation  and 
our  market-places,  our  literature  and  journalism,  our  aca- 
demic centres  and  our  society  at  large  should  ring  with  that 
round  word,  and  ring  so  loud  and  clear  that  every  ear 
should  hear  and  heed  it,  and  the  moral  order  of  the  world 
be  maintained. 


THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  STANDARDS 

This  is  one  of  the  urgent  demands  of  the  hour,  a  direct 
result  of  the  late  war,  a  demand  that  must  at  all  hazards 
be  met,  if  so  be  civilization  itself  is  to  be  maintained.  A 
World-War,  despite  its  indirect  advantages,  is  a  world- 
catastrophe,  the  most  manifest  and  radical  effect  of  which 
is  unsettlement — the  disintegration  of  all  existing  institu- 
tions and  functions  and  the  unchecked  reign  of  riot.  The 
old  days  of  "The  Lord  of  Misrule"  are  revived,  and  any- 
thing like  settled  order  is  uprooted.  It  is  the  Golden  Age  of 
Dis-Establishment.  Hence  the  call  for  Standardization — 
the  revival  and  reenforcement  of  First  Principles — those 
granitic  and  tested  foundations  on  which  the  structure  of 
the  world  rests.  There  are  some  things  which  in  bliblical 
language  "cannot  be  shaken"  though  all  else  disappear. 
There  is  a  "Kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved" — the  kingdom 
of  truth  and  justice  and  righteousness,  and  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  hour  to  recognize  and  defend  that  kingdom  against  all 
disturbing  agencies  and  thus  ensure  universal  progress  and 
peace. 


The  Maintenance  of  Standards  217 

1.  In  Government,  there  are  some  generally  accepted  Fun- 
damental Truths — those  Civic  or  Political  Postulates  which 
are  presupposed  in  all  well-organized  states,  as  essential  to 
their  very  existence,  so  essential  as  by  their  abolition  or 
impairment  to  jeopardize  all  national  and  international  life. 
There  are  "inalienable  rights"  that  must  be  preserved,  in- 
alienable principles  that  must  be  maintained,  the  basis  of  law 
and  order,  — the  prerequisites  to  anything  like  the  general 
good  of  the  race.  What  our  American  historian  Fiske  calls 
"Political  Ideals,"  what  such  British  writers  as  Stubbs  and 
Freeman,  in  their  Constitutional  Histories,  define  and  de- 
scribe as  the  bases  of  Civil  Government  the  world  over, 
and  of  the  system  of  Jurisprudence  and  International  Law — 
These  are  the  factors  that  constitute  the  very  foundation 
of  government  and  must  be  held  inviolate  at  all  hazards. 

Civil  Polity  thus  conceived  at  once  takes  its  place  among 
the  high  vocations  of  life,  immeasurably  removed  from 
that  merely  official  and  self-seeking  type  of  public  service 
that  so  often  characterizes  the  modern  state. 

2.  In  the  Commercial  and  Industrial  world  there  are  ac- 
cepted laws  on  which  the  future  of  trade  may  be  said  to  rest 
— Honor,  Honesty,  Probity  and  Candor,  Fair  Dealing  and 
Mutual  Confidence,  whereby  all  parties  involved  shall  con- 
sult each  other's  interests  and  secure  a  common  share  in  all 
accruing  benefits.  Business  thus  conceived  is  raised  at  once 
from  the  plane  of  merely  personal  or  corporate  advantage 
to  that  of  a  commercial  commonwealth,  a  real  Mutual 
Benefit  Society  in  which  the  buyer  and  seller,  employer  and 
employee,  are  in  the  real  sense,  partners,  sharers  of  one 
another's  labors,  promoters  of  one  another's  interests. 


218  Timely  Topics 

3.  So,  in  the  Educational  World,  a  province  in  which 
disturbing  factors  are  especially  manifest  and  by  reason  of 
which  the  whole  subject  of  educational  method  and  aims  is 
once  again  reopened  for  debate  and  decision.  What  is,  after 
all,  the  primary  purpose  of  education,  secondary  and  col- 
legiate; what  are  the  most  desirable  and  efficient  ways  and 
means  of  realizing  it;  to  what  degree  does  the  past  afford 
an  answer  and  in  what  respects  must  it  be  ignored  and 
radical  changes  instituted — these  are  insistent  and  persistent 
problems  and  will  not  down  until  settled  and  settled  rightly. 

Just  here  it  is  essential  to  preserve  those  primary  prin- 
ciples of  all  educational  processes  which  have  been  thor- 
oughly tested  and  have  proved  trustworthy  and  desirable. 
There  are  certain  indispensable  factors  without  which  edu- 
cation in  a  valid  sense  cannot  be  secured,  standards  of 
scholarship  and  culture,  which  constitute  what  Hamerton 
calls  "The  Intellectual  Life"  and  the  maintenance  of  which 
is  not  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  of  vital  necessity. 

4.  So,  in  the  Literary  World — the  domain  of  taste  and 
aesthetic  art,  that  province  in  which  what  Arnold  calls  "a 
sense  of  beauty"  is  a  prime  requisite — a  real  artistic  instinct. 
This  is  that  type  of  mental  activity  which  finds  its  expression 
in  written  form,  in  prose  and  verse,  in  the  wide  area  of 
authorship.  It  is  for  this  that  Matthew  Arnold  contends  in 
his  "Essays  on  Criticism,"  Bagehot  in  "Literary  Studies," 
Beggs  in  the  "Development  of  Taste,"  Corson  in  his  "Aims 
of  Literary  Study,"  Dowden  in  his  "Studies  in  Literature," 
and  all  those  numerous  writers  who  have  insisted  on  the  pre- 
servation of  those  cardinal  canons  of  criticism  which  from 
the  days  of  Aristotle  have  been  regarded  as  essential  factors. 


The  Maintenance  of  Standards  219 

Peoples  and  individuals  must  conform  to  them  to  be  called 
literate. 

5.  So,  in  the  Religious  World,  the  province  of  Doc- 
trine and  life.  Here,  as  nowhere  else,  the  foundations 
of  faith  must  be  in  evidence,  on  which  all  truth  is  supposed 
finally  to  rest.  What  the  Scriptures  call  "Sound  Doctrine," 
"Soundness  in  the  Faith"  is  thus  conceived  as  fundamental. 
There  is  in  every  man  what  Arnold  calls  "A  Sense  of  Con- 
duct," an  ineradicable  instinct,  an  order  of  life  based  on  cer- 
tain a  priori  principles,  from  which  there  can  be  no  safe 
divergence. 

The  great  historic  Creeds  and  Confessions  of  Christen- 
dom are  supposed  to  embody  such  canons  of  religious 
thought.  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  may  be  held  as 
to  secondary  truths,  there  are  some  cardinal  truths  on 
which  Christianity  is  founded  and  in  the  acceptance  of  which 
all  confessors  must  unite.  This  is  the  Consensus  Gentium 
in  the  realm  of  religion. 

In  the  light  of  these  suggestions  as  to  the  primacy  of 
Standards  in  all  departments  of  thought  and  life,  it  is  per- 
tinent to  sound  a  note  of  warning  as  we  discern  what  may  be 
called,  The  Modern  Trend,  so  potent  and  persuasive  and 
far-reaching  that  all  opposing  forces  must  be  summoned 
successfully  to  thwart  it. 

1.  In  Government,  there  is  the  tendency  to  break  away 
from  all  precedent  and  long  established  political  principles 
into  the  open  area  of  unregulated  liberty,  by  which  ex- 
pediency takes  the  place  of  justice,  partisanship  the  place 
of  unselfish  loyalty,  and  under  the  name  of  democracy  and 
the  rights  of  the  people,  the  wildest  excesses  are  sanctioned. 


220  Timely  Topics 

On  such  a  theory  of  government  civic  order  and  civic  pro- 
gress are  impossible  and  the  most  sacred  interests  of  states 
are  at  the  mercy  of  the  lawless.  The  fundamental  policy 
of  the  proletariat  is  the  subversion  of  standards — the  com- 
plete reorganization  of  national  life  on  the  basis  of  com- 
munism, whereby,  as  a  final  issue,  tyranny  and  anarchy  pre- 
vail. No  result  of  the  recent  war  is  more  ominous  than 
this,  and  it  appeals  to  every  right-minded  citizen  to  control 
it  and  insist  on  the  retention  of  political  standards. 

2.  In  the  Commercial  and  Industrial  Sphere  this  dan- 
gerous Trend  expresses  itself  in  the  abolition  of  anything 
like  a  Commercial  Code  and  the  substitution  of  personal 
interest  for  the  common  good.  Instead  of  the  interaction 
of  capital  and  labor,  of  producer  and  consumer,  for  mutual 
benefit,  what  is  now  broadly  known  as  Exploitation  is  the 
accepted  creed  and  each  one  for  himself  takes  the  place 
of  the  Golden  Rule  of  Altruism.  Business,  it  is  held,  has 
a  well  defined  province  and  policy  of  its  own,  quite  outside 
of  ordinary  procedure,  in  which  it  is  understood  that  all 
existing  standards  are  annulled  and  a  new  regime  instituted 
more  in  keeping  with  the  exigencies  of  the  hour.  Com- 
merce and  the  Industries,  it  is  argued,  may  have  been  profit- 
ably pursued  under  the  restricted  requisites  of  the  past, 
when  the  world  was  less  inter-dependent  and  competition 
less  acute,  but  not  so  now,  when  trade  has  become  world- 
wide and  commercial  rivalry  cannot  be  met  by  ordinary 
methods.  Profiteering  in  the  place  of  honorable  profiting 
has  become  a  practical  science,  in  the  hands  of  industrial  ex- 
perts, who  insist  that  old  business  standards  are  effete. 

3.  So,  in  the  sphere  of  Education.     The  very  theory  of 


The  Maintenance  of  Standards  221 

education  as  held  hitherto  is  re-opened  and  questioned, — 
what  it  really  signifies,  what  its  ultimate  purpose  is  and 
what  the  best  methods  are  by  which  its  ends  may  be  attained. 
The  fundamental  principle  on  which  Higher  or  Liberal 
Education  is  based  is  challenged  and  we  are  asked  to  sub- 
ordinate what  has  been  known  as  Intellectual  Culture  to  the 
material  demands  of  the  time.  This  is  far  more  than  a 
question  as  to  the  comparative  merits  of  a  classical  and 
scientific  training,  as  discussed  by  Matthew  Arnold  and  Mr. 
Huxley,  respectively,  far  more  than  a  question  even  as  to  the 
relative  value  of  a  general  and  a  vocational  training.  It  is 
a  question  as  to  what  makes  education  what  it  purports  to 
be,  when  a  man  may  be  said  to  be  educated,  what  the  inspir- 
ing spirit  of  mental  training  is  and  how  it  may  best  be 
cultivated  and  expressed.  This  is  the  crucial  problem  and 
all  those  who  are  interested  in  the  things  of  the  mind  must 
recognize  this  modern  uneducational  trend  and  make  haste 
to  meet  and  resist  it. 

4.  So,  in  the  Domain  of  Letters,  in  which  the  departure 
from  accepted  standards  of  literary  art  are  so  manifest, 
Literature  is  fundamentally  a  fine  art — an  expression  of 
aesthetic  sentiment  and  taste,  in  prose  and  verse,  and  can- 
not safely  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  the  material  and  mer- 
cenary. One  of  the  most  pronounced  tendencies  of  the 
time  is  the  commercializing  of  literature — the  substitution 
of  literary  notoriety  for  literary  repute,  of  mere  entertain- 
ment for  inspiration  and  instruction.  It  is  the  era  of  the 
best  sellers  as  indicating  literary  genius,  and  authorship  is 
in  the  open  market  for  the  highest  bidder.  In  the  sphere 
of  Fiction  and  the  Drama,  this  unliterary  trend  is  most 


222  Timely  Topics 

conspicuous,  and  the  Novel  and  the  Play  must  be  so  con- 
structed as  to  satisfy  the  popular  demand  for  the  sensa- 
tional, superficial  and  financially  profitable.  These,  it  would 
seem,  are  the  only  standards  worth  observing. 

5.  So,  in  Religious  Thought  and  Life.  What  are  called 
the  Standards  of  the  church  and  the  Christian  world  at  large 
are  accepted,  if  at  all,  with  emphatic  reservations.  Free- 
dom of  Thought  on  which  insistence  is  made,  is  especially 
applied  to  the  province  of  religious  doctrine,  and  the  trend 
is  straight  toward  the  negation  of  all  creeds  and  confessions 
— the  abolition  of  standards.  It  is  the  Era  of  the  Latitudi- 
narian,  who  prides  himself  on  his  freedom  from  all  accepted 
doctrinal  restrictions  and  is  a  tourist  at  large  in  the  realm 
of  thought,  having  the  right  of  way  over  all  local  boun- 
daries. He  has  the  self-assumed  privilege  of  Extra-Terri- 
toriality  in  the  sphere  of  truth.  If  the  church  is  to  exist 
as  an  institution  and  there  is  to  be  any  such  thing  as  a  dis- 
tinct basis  of  action,  and  a  real  religious  order  and  civiliza- 
tion, this  ir-religious,  un-religious,  non-religious  trend  must 
be  checked. 

Thus  it  is  that  in  Government,  the  Industries,  Education, 
Literature  and  the  Religious  Realm,  the  Demolition  of 
Standards  is  the  ominous  trend,  partly,  the  expression  of 
that  tendency  to  unrestricted  action  germane  to  human  na- 
ture from  the  beginning,  and  intensified,  as  it  has  been,  by 
the  destructive  influence  of  the  recent  war. 

Hence,  the  duty  of  the  hour  is  manifest  on  the  part  of 
those  who  may  be  called — The  Standard-Bearers  of  Modern 
Civilization,  in  which  duty  the  Christian  Church  and  Chris- 
tian Institutions  of  Learning  have  a  special  mission  to  ful- 


The  Maintenance  of  Standards  223 

fill,  not  simply  in  conserving  the  essential  values  in  religion, 
education  and  literature,  but  in  government  and  the  indus- 
tries and  society  at  large.  The  biblical  injunction  to  "hold 
the  traditions"  which  we  have  inherited  "earnestly  to  con- 
tend for  the  faith  once  delivered"  to  us,  is  an  injunction  ap- 
plicable to  every  sphere  of  human  thought  and  activity.  Be 
ing  assured  as  to  what  the  standards  are,  then  we  are  to 
hold  them  inflexibly  against  all  counter  influences. 

It  is,  moreover,  pertinent  to  note  that  this  maintenance 
of  standards,  of  fundamental  truth,  is  in  no  sense  incon- 
sistent with  a  Valid  Progressivism,  but  is  rather  its  neces- 
sary guarantee  and  support.  Any  such  thing  as  a  genuine 
and  wholesome  liberalism  must  be  guarded  and  governed  by 
certain  unalterable  principles,  by  a  fixed  foundation  of  truth 
and  right,  lest  it  degenerate  into  lawless  and  violent  ex- 
tremes. One  of  the  dominant  and  most  difficult  duties  of 
the  hour  in  church  and  state,  in  social,  civic  and  commercial 
life  is  to  mediate  between  an  ultra  conservatism  and  an 
ultra  liberalism,  whereby  there  may  be  secured  what  with- 
out contradiction  may  be  called,  a  liberal  conservatism  and 
a  conservative  liberalism, — the  only  sure  guarantees  of 
progress.  The  Reactionary  and  the  Radical  must  alike 
be  discarded,  and  a  safe  middle  ground  be  found  on  which 
all  alike  may  stand,  and  work  for  the  fulfillment  of  com- 
mon ends.  As  Archbishop  Whaley  states  it:  "It  is  not 
enough  to  believe  what  we  maintain,  but  we  must  maintain 
what  we  believe  and  because  we  believe  it."  Some  fixed 
point  of  departure  must  be  held,  some  final  court  of  appeal 
there  must  be  to  which  all  doubtful  issues  may  be  referred. 
In  human  history,  as  in  the  sphere  of  physical  science,  there 


224  Timely  Topics 

must  be  with  the  dynamic  factor  the  static  factor,  by  virtue 
of  which  the  dynamic  is  able  to  function.  It  is  this  static 
factor  which  must  be  established  and  maintained,  to  secure 
what  the  Scriptures  call  "the  stability  of  the  times." 


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